Under Trump, America's new friends: Russia, North Korea and Belarus

Washington: If the old saying is true, that you are known by who your friends are, then President Donald Trump may be telling the world something about who he plans to be in this second term.

. In a move that redrew the international order, Trump this week had the United States vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war.

. Among the countries that Trump joined in siding with Russia? North Korea, Belarus, Syria and Sudan.

. Those he stood against? Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and most of the rest of the world.

.US lawmakers warn that China could use Musk to influence Trump. It would be hard to think of a starker demonstration of how radically Trump is recalibrating America's place in the world after barely a month back in office. He is positioning the United States in the camp of the globe's chief rogue states in opposition to the countries that have been America's best friends since World War II or before.

. The fracturing of the US bond with its traditional allies carries profound implications for the future of American foreign policy. Even as leaders from Poland, France and Britain are heading to Washington this week to try to lure Trump back into the fold, they and their compatriots face the reality that he does not share their values or see their priorities being in concert with American interests.

. If the United States is going to align itself with international outcasts like Russia and the others, it could force Europe, Canada and Asian allies such as Japan and South Korea to go their own way and look elsewhere for alliances. At the same time, Trump's deference to Moscow has allowed Russia out of the diplomatic isolation chamber that Washington and the West sought to construct in the three years since its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.

. "Trump is transparently and unabashedly doing Russia's bidding in this and many other ways, aligning the US with our adversaries and against our treaty allies," said Susan E. Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations and later his national security adviser. "We all have to ask ourselves why?"

. European leaders were stunned and flummoxed by the US vote at the UN General Assembly on Monday as well as the American push for an alternate resolution through the Security Council that did not blame Russia for the invasion. On that measure, the United States, China and Russia voted together while Britain, France and other European nations abstained.

. Even some Republicans, who have strained to avoid publicly breaking with Trump even over decisions they privately deplored, were finally provoked into speaking out.

. "I was deeply troubled by the vote at the UN today which put us on the same side as Russia and North Korea," Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, wrote on social media. "These are not our friends. This posture is a dramatic shift from American ideals of freedom and democracy. We all want an end to the war, but it must be achieved on terms that ensure Ukraine's sovereignty and security and that deter Putin from pursuing further territorial ambitions."

. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., expressed consternation that the president would take the side of the invader. "The Trump Administration royally screwed up today on Ukraine," he said online. "The vast majority of Americans stand up for independence, freedom and free markets, and against the bully and invader."

. Trump's advisers argue that he is initiating a complicated, sensitive negotiation to end the war and that those criticizing him for adopting Russia's talking points must oppose an end to the violence in Ukraine. The last president, Joe Biden, did not make peace, therefore Trump's approach must be better, or so the reasoning goes.

. "The president knows how to make a deal better than anyone who has ever assumed the office of the American presidency, and in order to make a deal, you have to bring both sides to the table," Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at her briefing Tuesday. "And typically when you make a good deal, both sides leave that table a little bit unhappy."

. But if the goal was not to alienate President Vladimir Putin of Russia as Trump seeks an agreement, he has demonstrated no reticence about alienating the person on the other side of the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. While declining to criticize Putin or Russia, Trump has falsely claimed that Ukraine "started" the war and called the popularly elected Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections."

. The United States has rarely found common cause with the likes of North Korea and Belarus on questions of major importance while stiff-arming Britain and France. A State Department report in 2023 found that among the countries that the United States voted with most often at the United Nations that year were Canada, Britain, Australia and France. The countries that United States was most at odds with on contested UN votes included Syria, Nicaragua, Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba, Belarus and Russia.

. The main area where the United States typically finds itself at odds with its major allies is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where America mostly has stood against UN resolutions criticizing Israel even as European nations more often vote for them. Past diplomats at the UN said they could not recall a time when the United States had joined Russia and other outlier states on a question of such importance.

. "When I was UN ambassador, had I received instructions from the State Department and White House to hang our European allies out to dry and vote with the axis of autocrats, including Russia, North Korea and Belarus, I would have concluded that the Russians had hacked and corrupted our communications systems," Rice said.

. Trump evinces no concern about being left outside the global consensus. He hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France this week without evident rancor even as the visiting leader tried to gently coax him into being more wary of Russia and more willing to defend Ukrainian security. Trump smiled and shook hands and seemed thoroughly unmoved.

. He will host Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain on Thursday at the White House for another session that will further test the new reality of the Atlantic alliance as the British leader seeks to convey the importance Europe attaches to standing together with the United States. But European officials are not holding out great hope for success.

. The reality is that Trump is not offended by leaders like Putin and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. He has always expressed admiration for autocrats. On the wall of his office at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in 2021, he happily hung a picture of himself with Kim, a ruthless dictator whose government is accused by the State Department of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, torture, repression, coerced abortion and forced sterilization, among other human rights abuses.

. Other presidents have made common cause with unsavory characters and countries in realpolitik concessions to national interests, but generally without much enthusiasm and not usually at the expense of close allies. And Trump is willing to go further than most of his predecessors.

. During a news conference with Macron, the president brought up Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. The CIA has called the prince a killer, reporting that he ordered the brutal murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist. Trump called the prince "a fantastic young guy" who is "tremendously respected all over the world."

. Trump has had no such laudatory words lately for Zelenskyy, the embattled leader of a democracy invaded by a dictatorship. Ukraine is not part of the US alignment, as Trump envisions it. While the United States was the only Group of 7 country to vote against the UN resolution, Trump is effectively assembling a new club, one with chapters in Moscow, Minsk and Pyongyang instead of London, Paris and Berlin.

Under Trump, America's new friends: Russia, North Korea and Belarus

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