Trump cripples the transatlantic alliance

On returning from his weeklong overseas trip, United States President Donald Trump boasted that he’d scored a home run in his first mission to the Middle East and the heart of Europe. The claim was woefully faulty, of course. Anyone following his trip, with its damaging speeches and displays of rude manners, could draw only one conclusion – it was a disaster. However Trump, being Trump, would never acknowledge the prevailing consensus. As president he has weakened America day by day, upsetting friends and allies and pleasing no one but his own narrow-minded and ever-shrinking constituency.
The overseas jaunt appalled members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and Group of 7. German Chancellor Angela Merkel bluntly declared that her country could no longer rely on the US as a partner. Trump appears to have delivered us to a watershed moment in post-war history from which the global order will struggle to maintain stability.
His tour of the Middle East was like a reality TV show, and the only audience Trump cared about was the one at home. It was obvious that his chief interest in Saudi Arabia was selling US goods, chiefly arms. The Saudi ruling family knew he prides himself on striking business deals and was willing to accommodate him. Anything that would make him look good and affirm his tycoon credentials, the Saudis would provide. 
Trump’s address at a summit of Islamic nations was highly anticipated because of his condemnation of Muslims during the presidential campaign. It was bound to be a flop regardless of what he finally said since no one could take him seriously. This was a man who had decried Islam and tried to bar immigration to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries. As long as he stopped short of calling for another Christian crusade in the Middle East, it didn’t matter what he said there this time.
In Europe, Trump belittled his fellow heads of state, shrugged off talk about climate change, and quarrelled with key ally Germany over the trade deficit and contributions to Nato financing. Merkel was having none of it – saying once he’d left that Europe would have to be stronger and more self-reliant. It could no longer count on America’s support, or Britain’s, she said. 
Trump has torpedoed alliances in Europe by shifting government focus back to domestic interests, heedless of the damage that losing those friends might cause. Germany has provided a template for speaking out against America’s self-serving protectionism. Other countries, notably France, can be expected to follow it. The nations of continental Europe must hold together and strengthen their union in the face of Russian aggression amid EU-imposed sanctions and warmer ties with Washington.
The historic transatlantic alliance is in grave jeopardy because Trump has, once again, played the wrong cards in a high-stakes game with rules unfamiliar to him. His “America First” approach is destined to backfire now that he has undercut US dependence on Nato, the very institution that renders to Washington so much of its global clout. The end of the liberal world order is at hand, or at least its drastic modification.