White House not 'adjusting well' to allies ignoring Trump's bullying: report
Donald Trump's Iran struggle has exposed a fundamental truth: the world no longer fears American threats, and traditional allies are abandoning Washington to form new partnerships.
According to Politico's Nahal Toosi, Trump faces a wall of resistance from longtime U.S. allies who are actively forming new alliances and sidelining America as a diplomatic partner. In recent days, multiple global players have openly defied the president, exposing the severe limits of American influence.
The core problem is philosophical. "Trump and his aides often appear to operate as if most other people on the planet are 'non-player characters' in a video game," and they believe that America can use "threats, economic muscle and military action to bend other capitals to its will," Toosi observed.
But foreign policy doesn't work that way and the Politico analyst suggested the current administration is "not adjusting well" to a changed world.
Trump shows no signs of learning from this reality. Richard Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, observed: "If there were an appreciation that bullying was no longer a likely to succeed tactic you'd see a move away from it, but there's no real sign that Trump is doing so."
The problem is structural. "He is surrounded by 'yes' people," one senior European diplomat fumed.
Diplomacy requires reciprocity — a concept Trump's team appears incapable of grasping. "If you want something from somebody you have to give them something, unless like in World War II they've truly surrendered. It can't just be 'we're going to keep beating you,'" said a Western diplomat based in the Middle East.
Trump's tariffs are accelerating the divorce. Other countries are actively finding new trading partners beyond the U.S., reducing their economic reliance on America. As nations decrease their military and economic dependence on Washington, they become less likely to heed American demands in the future.
The fundamental misunderstanding runs deeper. Many foreign affairs experts worry that Trump treats global conflicts as real estate deals, reducing complex geopolitical issues to mere land disputes. But "identity, politics and the desire to simply survive as a people is what fuels many conflicts," not purely material calculations,' he wrote.
Trump and his team "fail to realize that people tend to fight for what gives their life meaning beyond the purely rational or material cost-benefit analysis," according to a former Latin American official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive topic.