Thomas Wright

Everyone in the administration has to really reflect over the next week or two and ask themselves if they stand a better chance of constraining President Trump from within or from without.

Since 1987, Trump’s worldview has been motivated much more by anger toward allies and partners than enemies...This is because he sees alliance security commitments and free trade as existential threats to U.S. interests. He has never really been bothered about geopolitical stability, etc. so when he looks at Russia/[the] Soviet Union, he sees a country that the U.S. has no security commitments to and no trade with...By contrast, Japan, [South] Korea, Germany, etc. all tick the threat box. Add to the mix that ... he truly couldn’t care less about a Russian threat to Europe—other [people’s] business in his view. The net effect is he genuinely thinks allies and partners are a greater problem for U.S. interests than the Russians.

[President Trump] would much prefer to be in Singapore than in Quebec. ... He gets more annoyed with allies than enemies, and really doesn’t get on with the others at the G7. He is anti-free trade and allies, and pro-strongmen and authoritarian regimes.

For the first 500 days of the Trump administration, [G7 partners of the United States] generally were bent over backwards not to criticize President Trump. … There is a feeling I think over the last few months that that approach has not borne fruit.