Give Trump’s realism a chance

In one place at least, the reaction to Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal has been one of unequivocal joy. That is Russia – and for obvious reasons. Most Russians have long seen US language about the ‘rules-based order’ as a mere mask for US empire and US national interests. In their view, Trump has now removed the mask.

Even more importantly, for the Russian establishment Trump’s words are a confirmation that he and Vladimir Putin see international affairs in very much the same way: as a matter of spheres of influence, transactionalism, and the ruthless defence of national interests.

During the Ukrainian revolution and the Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014, German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly said that Putin was not in touch with reality and was ‘living in another world’. Trump lives there too. This raises a horribly disquieting question for British and European elites: what if Putin and Trump (and Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Mohammed bin Salman) are in closer touch with reality than European establishments have been for the past generation and more, and are therefore better placed to agree among themselves?

After all, these leaders are in good company: Their coldly realist view of the world was first formulated intellectually by Thucydides more than 2,400 years ago.