Always Bet on the Big Dog

In The New York Post, Michael Walsh asks how does Trump do it?

Simple: the Big Dog takes what he wants. Trump puts his best offer on the table first, and then snatches it away at the first sign of hesitation — as he did with Kim in the run-up to the summit. He has no interest in acceding to diplomatic niceties unless (as in his flattery of Kim in Singapore) they further American national interests. Best of all, he doesn’t care who knows it or what they think about it.

…for the rabid Trump haters, there’s always something to froth about. Before the Singapore summit, the president had infuriated the usual establishment suspects with an offhand remark that he didn’t need much prep work before engaging with Kim, enraging the credentialists, whose outlook on life was formed in late-night cram sessions back at Harvard. That Trump was bringing a lifetime of experience in taking the measure of his man across a bargaining table never occurred to them.

In short, Trudeau, the French popinjay Emmanuel Macron and the colorless Theresa May are now getting the same treatment that, so far, has helped bring Xi and Kim to the table. A pat on the head here, the back of Trump’s hand there, until his opponents realize their best interests actually align with America’s and getting with the program is their best guarantee of self-preservation.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, can threaten “resistance” to America all she wants, but any “trade wars” will be nasty, brutish and short, and end with a humiliating climbdown by the European leaders.

In their obsessive quest for “stability,” our Foggy Bottom bonzes forget that nothing lasts forever, including — especially — alliances. Trump’s early skepticism regarding NATO was well-founded, since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has long outlived its usefulness as a check on Soviet power, but zombie NATO staggers on, even as our European “allies” fail to live up to their obligations to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense.

In the past, America has fought wars against Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, France (during the French and Indian War) and, yes, Canada. At the same time, a war that began in Korea in 1950 may soon be, legally, over. And a fading Russia has already been supplanted in the geopolitical arena by China. Things change.

Trump and his foreign-policy team of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton understand the truth of this dictum from former British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston: “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.” International diplomacy is not a popularity contest or a sewing circle. Instead, it’s a pit-bull arena in which the toughest breed comes out on top and the rest succumb, fall in line or slink away. Always bet on the big dog.

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