How Donald Trump has ripped up the foreign policy playbook

A grim realisation is dawning in the chancelleries of Europe.

Giving Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in the run up to his inauguration may have been rather naïve.

Some had assumed that Trump the candidate was taking more extreme positions to win votes.

Sure, he undermined Nato, saying America may not automatically come to the aid of the little countries if they don’t pay their dues.

Sure, he cheered on the chances of Europe breaking up in the wake of Brexit.

And he did not seem to buy into the Pax Americana, the idea that America underpinned a world order that had kept us peaceful secure and prosperous since World War II.

But people say stuff to get elected don’t they? Just wait and see what the prospect of actually being in power would do to him.

Well, as it turns out Trump the President may well be the same if not even more extreme than Trump the campaigner.

:: Donald Trump causing NATO 'anxiety' after saying alliance is 'obsolete'

In just two interviews he took a swipe at the following:

Nato (obsolete), EU (doomed to break up), the Iran deal (the dumbest ever), German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (responsible for a catastrophic policy mistake).

The new leader of the free world has a startling disregard for the foundations of that free world, and for the relationships and institutions that underpin it.

German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier tweeted that Trump’s comments had caused astonishment among foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, "and certainly not only here".

Berlin is making it clear, Donald Trump’s condemnation of Merkel, Nato and the EU, is a threat to western unity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tersely responded: "We Europeans have our fate in our own hands. He has presented his positions once more.

"They have been known for a while. My positions are also known."

French President Francois Hollande was indignant.

"Europe will be ready to pursue transatlantic cooperation, but it will be based on its interests and values. It does not need outside advice to tell it what to do."

As one American political scientist tweeted:

"The traditional foreign policy playbook is support your friends and throw your adversaries off balance. Not the other way around."

But this incoming president ripped up the playbook a long time ago and America's allies need to get used to it sooner than later.

:: Watch live coverage of the inauguration on Sky News from 3pm and Sky Atlantic from 4pm on 20 January. Adam Boulton is in the US presenting a special Sky News programme - Trump: America's President - every day at midnight from now until Friday.

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