You ask if Donald Trump is “friend or foe?” (News). The answer is that if it is understood how Trump perceives himself, the US and others in the world, then there is a consistency about his utterances and policies.
He sees himself as global deal-maker and, in effect, a replacement for the United Nations. The statements he has made, and continues to make, about Gaza, Greenland, Panama and Canada should be taken literally. In Trump’s reckoning of the order of the world there are not so much as sovereign states, nations with economies and citizens, but properties with tenants that can be purchased – or, in the case of Gaza, tenants who can be “asked” to leave. In the case of Ukraine, he deals with the significant other potential property dealer, Russia, and that explains his treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Dr George Hudson
Worcester
