Foreign officials say Trump has sent US allies running — and it’s permanent

President Donald Trump's bruising return to the White House has sent many longtime foreign allies scrambling to get their distance, and according to a new piece from The Atlantic, that distance will last long after Trump is gone.

Trump's second term as president has been marked by notable and widespread disrespect toward nations once seen as close U.S. allies. Between his attempts to level massive tariffs against nearly every nation in the world and his frequent breaches of diplomatic norms, Trump has created a hostile global environment in which allies no longer feel safe trusting in the stability of the U.S.

In a new piece for The Atlantic on Tuesday, staff writer Vivian Salama argued that this new dynamic, in which the nations of the world are working to establish a safe distance from the U.S., is bound to become the new normal for years to come, even after Trump leaves office and is potentially replaced by a more traditional, dependable administration.

"For years, the strategy among U.S. allies was to wait President Trump out," Salama explained. "Now many are preparing for a world in which the United States is no longer indispensable — not simply during Trump’s presidency but afterward as well, regardless of who occupies the White House. They are building military capabilities, diversifying trade, developing new domestic industries and forging relationships that reduce their dependence on Washington."

Writing further, Salama stressed that this is not a wholesale abandonment, but more of a precaution being taken to protect against the recurring instability of American leadership.

"This isn’t a coordinated revolt against America or a wholesale turn toward China," Salama continued. "Most U.S. partners see Washington as an essential partner and don’t fully trust Beijing. But nations that were once firmly in the American orbit are concluding that they cannot rely on the U.S. to provide the same leadership, markets, technology, and military protection that it has for decades. And that, foreign officials told me, is true no matter who wins the presidency in 2028."

She added later: "The changes are already visible, including in rising European defense spending, Canada’s commercial outreach to China and Japan’s efforts to become a larger arms supplier. Taken together, these trends point to a reordering of the international system that stretches far beyond Trump. 'Trump brought with him an earthquake, but we’d be foolish not to prepare for aftershocks,' a senior European official told me. 'The fact is, we’ll be setting ourselves up for failure if we assume that everything will go back to the way it was after Trump leaves office. The world is changing, and we can see very clearly now that America is changing too.'"

Salama also noted that, for as much as the president has become obsessed with monuments to himself, this dramatic shift in the global order is likely to become one of his "most consequential" legacies.