In addition to his protectionist trade ideas, Donald Trump’s America First rhetoric and threats to leave NATO have alarmed many US allies.
Not only did Estonia’s highly regarded prime minister, Kaja Kallas, meet with White House representatives during her November visit to Washington. She also made sure to talk to important allies of Donald Trump.
Her foreign minister had been in the heart of Trump country just a month before, congratulating employees of an Arkansas Lockheed Martin Corp. facility for their contribution to national security—namely, the HIMARS multiple rocket launchers manufactured there. “It’s important that we take these messages not only to Washington but also to other part of American society, to states that are perhaps a little more conservative,” Margus Tsahkna told the press.
The outreach is just one illustration of the careful, yet urgent, preparations that nations are doing for Trump’s potential comeback to the White House. This fact will probably be felt during this week’s Davos meetings of the world’s elite, as the former president’s commanding victory in the Iowa caucuses solidified his hold on the Republican nomination and set the stage for a possible rematch with Joe Biden, who trails in national polls.
Trump’s win in 2016 startled both US friends and opponents. Leaders are not wasting any time this time.
In an attempt to learn more about the former president’s foreign policy goals, residents of Washington’s Embassy Row have been searching the city for meetings with former officials and anybody else connected to him. In other cases, they have even gone so far as to personally massage Trump’s ego, or in Estonia’s case, try to defuse his frequent grievance that Europe doesn’t pay enough on defence.
Others are publicly raising the alarm. Trump’s first term taught us that “it is clearly a threat,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said to French TV last week.
Not many powerful people are as transparent. However, in-depth interviews with government representatives across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America exposed their worries—and occasionally even their optimism—about the potential consequences of a Trump comeback for international commerce, security, climate action, and the distribution of power. The majority requested anonymity when speaking about a supposedly internal US topic, with the campaign only recently beginning to take up steam and expected to be fierce.