Photo: NATHAN HOWARD/Getty Images via AFP
Photo: NATHAN HOWARD/Getty Images via AFP

Ideas

Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done

Allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing.

First published in The Atlantic on March 17, 2026.

by Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
March 19, 2026 | reading time: 6 Min.

Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places.

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