Donald Trump seems to see allies as a burden

EUROPEAN publishing saw a sensational hit in the 1840s with “The Mysteries of Russia”, a Frenchman’s take on the supposed brutality of Slavic life. Its most lurid tale described a Russian peasant fleeing wolves on a sled, who—unable to outpace the slavering pack—escaped by hurling her children, one by one, to their deaths. Jump to 2017 and modern-day European leaders fear that President Donald Trump takes a rather similar view of allies, notably those in the 28-member NATO military alliance. European politicians, generals and diplomats have scrutinised Mr Trump’s interviews and speeches and concluded that, by instinct at least, should they ever hold America back, he sees allies as potential burdens fit to be thrown, wailing, into the void.

As part of an America First approach to geopolitics, Mr Trump has made clear that he resents the unconditional nature of Article 5, the treaty clause that treats an attack on one NATO country as an attack on all, committing members to a collective response. As a candidate in 2016, he growled that only those allies keeping a political pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence—“paying their bills” as he put it—should count on America coming to their aid. Both before and after his election he has called NATO “obsolete” because it is not focused on fighting terrorism. Mr Trump has suggested that he might trade away sanctions on Russia, imposed in 2014 in response to the invasion of Ukraine and toughened as recently as December 2016, if “good deals” can be done with President Vladimir Putin—whether those involve agreeing to shrink nuclear arsenals, or encouraging Russia’s unsqueamish armed forces to smite the Islamic State (IS) terror network.