Mar 8, 2025

On duty in New York for various print and broadcasting platforms last November 5, I monitored the US election results as they came in with a certain trepidation.

Much of America’s mainstream media was slow on the uptake but it was clear to me early on that Donald Trump was returning to the White House.

The prospect did not fill me with glee. But I consoled myself with thoughts of how terrible the alternative – the vacuous Kamala Harris – would have been.

I reminded myself that on a number of issues – securing the southern border with Mexico to stop illegal mass migration, ending the billions being spent on net-zero nonsense, cutting taxes and stifling regulations, a war on wasteful federal spending, an all-out attack on urban crime, stopping transgender operations on the young, banning men from competing in women’s sports – he was more right than wrong.

Perhaps second time round Trump would be a bit more mature, a little less unpredictable, somewhat more aware of the dignity the presidency should embody, more focused on his legacy than the next day’s headlines.

Yes, he would deploy unorthodox means and there would be much too much exhausting sound and fury. It would clearly not be a time for those of a gentle or nervous disposition. But if it got results, so be it. And didn’t complacent, corrupt Washington need some stirring up anyway?

Well, how wrong can you be? The last seven days have confirmed what those of us prepared to give Trump the benefit of the doubt have, in our heart of hearts, always feared: that he is an unprincipled, narcissistic charlatan.

For him, freedom and democracy – the core values of the country he leads and of the Atlantic Alliance which has united America and Europe for almost 80 years – mean nothing. Because the interests of Donald J Trump are everything.

In Trump World dictators are feted and revered, democratic allies dumped and disparaged.

Might is right, the spoils go to the strong, the weak deserve only opprobrium. Dependency is weakness. So if you depend on America, for markets or defence, then you can be certain Trump will mistreat you.

Indeed, being an ally serves little purpose: Trump will still slap tariffs on your exports (Mexico, Canada) and threaten to seize your territory (Canada, Greenland, Panama).

The brutal reality of all this unfolded last week, the grimmest seven days for Western democracy in modern times.

This week it became clear that, under President Trump, we can no longer count on America as the keystone of the Atlantic Alliance – that when it comes to Europe’s future security it will increasingly be on its own.

This is no longer just a matter of Europe picking up more of the Nato defence burden, which is long overdue and happening at last. It is the prospect of Nato without America at all.

‘I want to believe the US will stay by our side,’ President Macron said in a prime-time broadcast last night ‘but we have to be ready if they don’t’. He’s right.

The end of a US-led Nato alliance is bad enough. But it’s even worse than that.

Trump’s America is not just an unreliable ally – it now behaves as if it’s batting for the other side. Faced with a choice between Europe and Russia, Trump gives every impression that he’d choose Russia.

This week a French senator said ‘we are fighting a dictator [Putin] supported by a traitor [Trump]’.

Over the top? Perhaps. But consider what’s happened in just the past couple of days. The man who promised to stop the Ukraine-Russian war on day one of taking power decided instead on day 42 to stop all further US military aid to Ukraine – while looking at ending economic sanctions that hurt the Kremlin.

Not content with one bodyblow to Ukraine, he followed up with a second – freezing Kyiv’s access to vital intelligence data – which immediately undermined its ability to deal with Russian attacks.

Within 24 hours Russia mounted one of its biggest ever bombardments on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, unleashing more than 250 missiles and drones on power and gas facilities in one night.

Trump aides like to stress the weapons and intelligence bans are only temporary. But no matter how much grovelling President Zelensky does since he dared to stand up to the US President last Friday in the Oval Office (and he’s done a lot), Trump just turns the screw.

It’s becoming clear that Trump wants to see the back of Zelensky and have him replaced with someone more pliable.

Senior Trump aides have even held secret talks with Zelensky’s political opponents and, from Trump down, the US administration has taken to parroting Kremlin talking points about the need for a general election in Ukraine (not easy when your country has been invaded and is part-occupied by the invader).

Thus is the White House now aligned with the Kremlin, which has long wanted rid of Zelensky.

Perhaps that explains why Trump, as he humiliates the Ukrainian leader, puts no pressure on Putin whatsoever.

He claims there are ‘strong signals that they [Russia] are ready for peace’, without a scintilla of evidence. He’s already assured Putin there’s no question of Ukraine being allowed to join Nato.

The Kremlin’s less-than-friendly response was to say that any deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine would be regarded as a declaration of war on Russia by Nato, which pretty much scuppers Sir Keir Starmer’s hopes of deploying a Franco-British peacekeeping force (for which much thanks – it was always going to be fraught with difficulty).

There will be peace talks in Saudi Arabia next week and Zelensky is expected to attend. Trump, probably realising he’s overdone the love-in with the Kremlin, yesterday threatened more sanctions if Russia continued its aerial attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Amid the confusion it is important, in these testing times, to stay clear-headed. As Trump tries to discombobulate us with all manner of bluster, it’s worth holding on to some self-evident, fundamental truths.

There is an invader (Russia) and a victim (Ukraine). There is a democracy (Ukraine) and a dictatorship (Russia). There is a country which wants to be a democratic European market economy (Ukraine) and another that hates democracy, freedom, markets and everything else the West stands for (Russia).

That we have a US president who sides with the invader and penalises the victim is proof our world has turned upside down. Europe, with Britain playing a pivotal role, must do all it can to fill the gaps, as it’s already starting to do.

Whatever happens, Europe – even if Trump comes to his senses – must prepare for a future without America. It was already starting to realise as much before Trump pulled the rug from under Ukraine. It can now be in no doubt – and must rearm accordingly.

Of course peace must still be given its chance. But not a loser’s peace, which is what Trump looks like forcing on Ukraine. Whatever the parameters of any peace deal, it cannot leave Ukraine too weak to fend off Russia when Putin feels it’s time to finish the job.

There is a difference between peace and capitulation. When it comes to Ukraine, it is not clear Trump knows the difference. What can he care of democracy in Ukraine when he encouraged the mob to overthrow the result of a democratic election in America?

Those of us who wished for better should have known better. It was on January 6, 2021, that the real Trump was in view for all to see. He did not even try to hide from us what he was.

What fools we were not to take him at his own estimation but to think he could amount to something better. We have no right to be surprised that the man who tried to overturn democracy in his own country doesn’t give a damn if it’s now snuffed out in Ukraine.