MaddowBlog-Trump succeeds in uniting our traditional allies -- against the United States

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Russia and China have spent years trying to disrupt U.S. alliances. In 2026, the incumbent American president is doing their job for them.

For those concerned with the United States’ international standing, and the eagerness of our traditional allies to leave us behind, this week has been especially brutal. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-09T18:32:41.803Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-succeeds-in-uniting-our-traditional-allies-against-the-united-states

As Donald Trump considers a maximalist foreign policy vision rooted in his whims and “psychological” needs, it’s worth appreciating the degree to which the rest of the world has taken note of the president’s erratic radicalism. Consider some of the developments from the past week:

The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark issued a joint declaration this week that warned the United States that they would “not stop defending” the values of sovereignty and territorial integrity following Trump’s threats related to Greenland.

The U.S. faced a rare rebuke at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council this week, where even our allies said Trump’s military offensive in Venezuela violated the U.N. charter and “chips away at the very foundation of international order.”

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has a largely ceremonial role, warned of a major global realignment this week, insisting that there had been a “breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order.”

The Netherlands announced this week that it’s scaling back its participation in U.S.-led missions to counter drug trafficking in the Caribbean because of its opposition to the Trump administration’s deadly military operations against civilian boats. That came on the heels of a related announcement from Great Britain, which said it would stop intelligence sharing with the U.S. about boats in the Caribbean for the same reason.

If we look back just a few weeks earlier, Denmark’s military intelligence service for the first time also described the U.S. as a potential security risk.

In isolation, each of these stories was and is important, but taken together, the emerging picture is one in which much of the world is not only afraid of what’s become of the United States, but is also forging new partnerships and alliances that leave us behind......

But it’s not only foreign citizens who’ve lost respect for the Trump-led U.S. — it’s also foreign officials, who are increasingly looking at what’s become of us with a combination of fear, disappointment, contempt and confusion.

Russia and China have spent years trying to disrupt U.S. alliances. In 2026, the incumbent American president is doing their job for them.