For Democratic officials and voters, this is a time of extraordinary anxiety. Donald Trump appears to be the worst presidential candidate imaginable, but he’s nevertheless winning the 2024 race — and his advantage is growing. The prospect of the felonious Republican wielding power alongside a far-right Congress and radicalized Supreme Court is very real.
The intensifying fears, however, are not limited to the United States.
As NATO leaders prepare to meet in Washington this week, NBC News reported that Trump’s possible return is “casting a shadow over the summit.” Officials from U.S. partners are keenly aware of the fact that the former president, if returned to power, could endanger the future of the alliance, among other radical departures.
After all, as a report by The New York Times reminded readers overnight, “Mr. Trump once declared NATO ‘obsolete,’ threatened to exit the alliance and more recently said he would let the Russians do ‘whatever the hell they want’ to any member country he deemed to be insufficiently contributing to the alliance.”
A Politico report added that U.S. allies in NATO want President Joe Biden to win another term, but they no longer believe that’s likely to happen, fueling international fears.
But as concerned as NATO members are about the future of American leadership, unease in Kyiv is at a whole other level. The Times reported over the weekend:
Ukraine, which depends on American military aid for its survival, has long tried to maintain bipartisan support in the United States. That has never been easy, but it is getting harder, especially with the increased possibility that Donald J. Trump, no great friend of Ukraine, will return to the White House.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Bloomberg News last week, for example, and was rather candid about his fears.
“If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood — we want to be ready for this, we want to know,” the Ukrainian leader said. “We want to understand whether in November we will have the powerful support of the U.S. or will be all alone.”
“If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelenskyy added.
That said, it’d be an overstatement to suggest every prominent foreign official is fearful about Trump’s possible second term. The Times’ report added that Russia’s Vladimir Putin recently delivered public remarks and “seemed to relish the prospect of Mr. Trump’s return.”
Imagine that.
