With Trump, ‘America First’ is back. US allies brace for a shock.
America's allies worldwide are preparing to deal with a hard-nosed Trump administration, less open to policy cooperation and coordination with other countries, and readier to go it alone.
Evan Vucci/AP
London
Donald J. Trump’s election triumph signals the most important shift in America’s place in the world since the end of World War II, nearly eight decades ago.
And the policy implications of his return to the White House – on critical issues from wars in Ukraine and the Mideast to world trade and climate change – are just one reason the election result matters so much beyond America’s borders.
For Mr. Trump’s comeback has confirmed a more profound departure from the way the United States has long projected both its hard power, meaning its military and economic muscle, and its soft power: its reputation.
Why We Wrote This
President-elect Donald Trump revealed himself in his first term to be an unpredictable, go-it-alone foreign policymaker. He is showing no signs of having changed his spots as he prepares to return to the White House.
These sea changes will be unsettling for friend and foe alike, but especially for longtime U.S. allies.
For decades, the U.S. has wielded its heft on the world stage through economic, trade, and security partnerships with like-minded countries, especially with its European allies in NATO.
But the pendulum has been swinging in recent years, not for the first time in American history, toward a more inward-looking and protectionist approach. That shift accelerated during Mr. Trump’s first term in office.
On security matters, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden did actively reengage with traditional U.S. allies. On trade and tariffs, however, he broadly followed the Trump 1.0 line, especially with regard to America’s main economic rival, China.
Mr. Trump’s victory will be viewed overseas not just as heralding a return to his first-term protectionism, and his overt disdain for America’s international alliances.
At least to judge by his campaign pronouncements, his win also appears to herald the kind of assertive isolationism espoused by opponents of America’s entry into the world war against Nazi Germany.
The 1930s isolationists’ banner, in fact, has become a Trump rallying cry: “America First.”
The 2024 version seems likely to mean the new administration will focus its political energies on delivering its domestic agenda. Abroad, the emphasis seems set to shift away from consultation and cooperation with allies, to focus instead on unilateral action, and selective deal-making, where Mr. Trump feels U.S. interests are directly at stake, especially in China.
Yet the soft power implications of Mr. Trump’s victory may be even greater.
America’s leading role in the world since the mid-20th century has rested not only on economic strength and military muscle, but on its reputation as the world’s most powerful, resilient, and stable democracy, wedded to the rule of law, open to newcomers, and championing human rights.
Critics, at home and abroad, have rightly pointed out that America has not always met these lofty standards, nor has it always led by example.
Still, the ideal has resonated widely: the notion of America as a “shining city on the hill,” in a phrase used by presidents as dissimilar as John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
That vision has been eroding in recent years, especially after Mr. Trump refused to acknowledge his 2020 election loss to Mr. Biden and urged on supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the result.
Even when Mr. Biden was in office, senior political figures abroad, especially in Europe, remained shocked not just by the Capitol violence, but by the tens of millions of Americans who had voted for Mr. Trump after his first term, nearly reelecting him.
The message from this week’s election – and from the angry, at times overtly sexist and authoritarian rhetoric that Mr. Trump used on the campaign trail – is that America is a deeply, angrily, unstably divided country.
The democratic consensus championed by leaders like Presidents Kennedy and Reagan has shattered.
A majority of U.S. voters want a very different kind of leader, wedded to a very different kind of America.
They want Donald Trump.
With only a handful of exceptions, America’s allies – especially those worried about Russia and China – did not want Mr. Trump to win.
But now they are scrambling to recalibrate and adapt, trying to make nice with a president they had hoped to see in their rearview mirror.
Only minutes after Mr. Trump’s win became clear, Britain’s left-of-center prime minister, Kier Starmer, sent him effusive congratulations on his “historic victory.”
From Ukraine, despite fears Mr. Trump will seek a quick deal ratifying Russia’s occupation and annexation of eastern regions of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement of congratulations and voiced hope of progress toward a “just peace.”
Another early message came from French President Emmanuel Macron, whose relationship with Mr. Trump grew increasingly fraught over the course of his first term.
The French leader harked back to their initially warm ties. He said that he now hoped to work jointly with a reelected Mr. Trump for “peace and prosperity.”
But a second statement recognized the deep changes in America and its place in the world that the election result seemed to confirm.
After a phone call between President Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the two leaders said they looked forward to forging a “more united, stronger, and more sovereign Europe in the new context.”