Mr. Trump’s Random

Insult Diplomacy

These ought to have been the honeymoon days of Trump-

era diplomacy. With no major foreign policy crisis to

troubleshoot and world leaders anxious to decipher what,

exactly, America First would look like on the global stage,

President Trump had an opportunity to reassure allies and

start laying the foundation for joint approaches to

international challenges.

Then the president began picking up the “beautiful” Oval

Office phone. In the span of a couple of weeks, Mr. Trump

has rattled the world by needlessly insulting allies and

continuing to peddle the dumbfounding narrative that the

United States has long been exploited by allies and foes

alike.

His administration has not departed radically from some core

positions it inherited from the Obama administration. Last

week, for instance, it admonished Russia over its

destabilizing role in eastern Ukraine and signaled unease

about Israeli settlements. Yet Mr. Trump’s pugnacious

approach to foreign relations and his first executive orders

— the most misguided of which was the sweeping travel ban

targeting people from seven predominantly Muslim nations

— have already undermined America’s standing. The fallout

has included large demonstrations in Europe, searing news

coverage (the latest cover of the German newsweekly Der

Spiegel features an illustration of Mr. Trump holding the

severed head of the Statue of Liberty) and strong rebukes

from United Nations officials.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from

Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and

contributing writers from around the world.

It began, predictably, with Mexico. Mr. Trump made

America’s southern neighbor and third-largest trading

partner the prime punching bag of his campaign. While

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has met the

deluge of insults and provocations with exemplary restraint,

White House officials have done nothing to dial down the

tension. Late last month they insisted they would find a way

to bill Mexico for a border wall, perhaps by slapping taxes

on imports. This message left Mr. Peña Nieto no option but

to cancel a trip to Washington that had been arranged to

begin undoing the damage. In a subsequent call between the

two leaders, Mr. Trump reportedly threatened Mr. Peña

Nieto with deploying troops across his border to take care of

“bad hombres.” This was, his aides later claimed, just a joke.

Diplomats and foreign policy professionals were still reeling

from that revelation when the first accounts of the call with

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia trickled in.

Fuming about an agreement the Obama administration and

Mr. Turnbull had reached to resettle refugees stranded in

offshore prisons run by Australia, Mr. Trump went ballistic.

The American president reportedly hung up on Mr. Turnbull

after declaring that “this was the worst call by far” with a

foreign leader that day. There was no apology or

backtracking the next day to mend fences with an ally that

has obediently followed the United States into its recent

military quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains an

important intelligence-sharing partner.

Far from being embarrassed by the leaked accounts of his

calls, Mr. Trump referred to them gloatingly on Thursday.

“When you hear about the tough calls I’m having, don’t

worry about it, just don’t worry about it,” Mr. Trump told

attendants at the National Prayer Breakfast. “They’re tough.

We have to be tough. … We’re taken advantage of by every

nation in the world, virtually. It’s not going to happen

anymore.”

Other administration officials have been no less abrasive.

Nikki Haley, the ambassador to the United Nations, made

her debut in New York warning that the United States was

“taking names” of allies who “don’t have our backs.”

If this bellicose approach becomes the norm, alliances and

key relationships will quickly fray, and the appeal of anti-

American politicians is certain to grow. When the time

comes, as it assuredly will, for Mr. Trump to pick up the

phone to make tough requests of traditional allies in

moments of crisis, he shouldn’t be surprised if it is the

person at the other end of the line who ends the call abruptly.

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