Trump’s ‘new normal’ leaves Australia marooned. We can no longer pretend otherwise

‘The global order is built on trust. The United States, under Donald Trump, cannot be trusted,’ writes Zoe Daniel. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

The French president Emmanuel Macron borrowed some lines from Hugh Grant about bullies at the World Economic Forum in Davos. His target was Donald Trump, who had leaked a conciliatory text message from Macron who, evidently, was trying to get the US president to the table to shore up the rapidly disintegrating global order.

In the love-it-or-hate-it Christmas film Love Actually, Grant – playing the foppish British prime minister of the day – confronts the US president, saying: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend, and since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger.”