Trump Doesn't Remember What He's Done
European leaders remember how Donald Trump insulted them. They remember his tariffs, his boorish treatment of the Ukrainian president, his insults to their soldiers. Everyone remembers these things and has drawn conclusions, except, apparently, Donald Trump.
From The Atlantic (click here for a gift link):
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.
He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before.
For the past 14 months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without any strategy can actually be president of the United States. Surely, the foreign-policy analysts murmured, Trump thinks beyond the current moment. Surely, foreign statesmen whispered, he adheres to some ideology, some pattern, some plan. Words were thrown around—isolationism, imperialism—in an attempt to place Trump’s actions into a historical context. Solemn articles were written about the supposed significance of Greenland, for example, as if Trump’s interest in the Arctic island were not entirely derived from the fact that it looks very large on a Mercator projection.
This week, something broke. Maybe Trump does not understand the link between the past and the present, but other people do. They can see that, as a result of decisions that Trump made but cannot explain, the Strait of Hormuz is blocked by Iranian mines and drones. They can see oil prices rising around the world and they understand that it is difficult and dangerous for the U.S. Navy to solve this problem. They can also hear the president lashing out, as he has done so many times before, trying to get other people to take responsibility, threatening them if they don’t.
Europeans, like America’s other allies, also remember the events of the past year, even if Trump has forgotten them.
Specifically, they remember that for 14 months, the American president has tariffed them, mocked their security concerns, and repeatedly insulted them. As long ago as January 2020, Trump told several European officials that “if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you.” In February 2025, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he had no right to expect support either, because “you don’t have any cards.” Trump ridiculed Canada as the “51st state” and referred to both the present and previous Canadian prime ministers as “governor.” He claimed, incorrectly, that allied troops in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” causing huge offense to the families of soldiers who died fighting after NATO invoked Article 5 of the organization’s treaty, on behalf of the United States, the only time it has done so. He called the British “our once-great ally,” after they refused to participate in the initial assault on Iran; when they discussed sending some aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf conflict earlier this month, he ridiculed the idea on social media: “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
At times, the ugly talk changed into something worse. Before his second inauguration, Trump began hinting that he wouldn’t rule out using force to annex Greenland, a territory of Denmark, a close NATO ally. At first this seemed like a troll or a joke; by January 2026, his public and private comments persuaded the Danes to prepare for an American invasion. Danish leaders had to think about whether their military would shoot down American planes, kill American soldiers, and be killed by them, an exercise so wrenching that some still haven’t recovered. In Copenhagen a few weeks ago, I was shown a Danish app that tells users which products are American, so that they know not to buy them. At the time it was the most popular app in the country.
The economic damage is no troll either. Over the course of 2025, Trump placed tariffs on Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea, often randomly—or again, whimsically—and with no thought to the impact. He raised tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the Swiss president, then lowered them after a Swiss business delegation brought him presents, including a gold bar and a Rolex watch. He threatened to place 100 percent tariffs on Canada should Canada dare to make a trading agreement with China. Unbothered by possible conflicts of interest, he conducted trade negotiations with Vietnam, even as his son Eric Trump was breaking ground on a $1.5 billion golf-course deal in that country.
Most American allies are democracies, and that means that public opinion matters to their leaders too. And public opinion in all of them has swung against the United States. Politico has published polls showing that the Canadians, French, British and Germans now believe that China is a more reliable partner than the US under Trump:
The president speaks as if the United States were not the founder and leader of NATO, and NATO’s other members, as if his allies’ interests were alien to his own. So no wonder they don’t want to send ships and troops to help him out: This isn’t cowardice. It’s a calculation.
Most of them have stopped trying to find the hidden logic behind Trump’s actions, and they understand that any contribution they make will count for nothing. A few days or weeks later, Trump will not even remember that it happened.
Read the whole Atlantic article
Kleptocracy Tracker
Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart)
March 13
A Pentagon recruitment presentation aimed at Wall Street investment bankers floated access to government officials and foreign royal families as a potential benefit of Department of Defense work, suggesting such connections could be leveraged to raise capital in the future.
While serving as a US envoy in Middle East negotiations, Jared Kushner’s private equity firm has approached sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar—including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which previously invested $2 billion shortly after Trump’s first term.
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries received perks from the White House—including a lucrative Venezuelan oil license and support for a major US refinery project—after paying the Trump Organization $10 million in 2024.
The Trump administration is set to receive a nearly $10 billion fee from investors—including Silver Lake (a partner of Jared Kushner’s private equity firm) and Larry Ellison’s Oracle—following the recently completed deal to take control of TikTok’s US business.
The price of Trump’s meme coin surged more than 50% in 24 hours after its website and X account announced that the top 297 coin holders would be invited to a conference and gala luncheon with the president next month.
March 16
The SEC is preparing a proposal to reduce publicly traded companies’ reporting requirements from quarterly to semiannual filings, a move that would reduce corporate transparency.
The SEC’s head of enforcement abruptly resigned after just six months in the role, raising concerns about the agency’s independence and oversight capacity as it adopts a more business-friendly posture.
March 18
Event Strategies, which planned the January 6 rally, has become one of the government’s top-paid event planners after receiving more than $13 million in no-bid federal contracts.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for his congressional bid from lobbyists, business executives, and political action committees tied to industries regulated by the Department of Transportation.
March 19
The US Commission of Fine Arts—whose members were handpicked by Trump—voted unanimously to approve a coin depicting the president, a procedural step in the administration’s plan to circulate commemorative tokens and currency bearing Trump’s likeness.
Federal regulators proposed easing rules put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, allowing America’s largest banks to hold billions of dollars less in capital on their balance sheets.
After Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm invested in an American rare earth mining company—then valued at $200 million—the Trump administration took a $50 million stake in the firm, helping raise its valuation to $2 billion.
Spring
Nothing is green yet in northwest Poland, but the ducks came back to our pond…
Read the whole Atlantic article
Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.