It’s not just Trump. Much of America has turned its back on Europe | Timothy Garton Ash

The United States is no longer passionate about the transatlantic alliance; its president is reflecting the national mood

Can Donald Trump get any worse? Yes, he can. But our fixation on his personal awfulness, which was on full display at the UN this week, blinds us to the larger forces behind his Trumpery. Over the last few days here in Washington, I’ve been trying to work out what will be left of the old transatlantic west even if Trump departs the scene in January 2021 – or, pray heaven, sooner. The answer is sobering. Even in the best case, the United States and its international alliances are not going to bounce back as they did after the era of Watergate and Vietnam. This time is different, for reasons that lie both inside and beyond the US.

Yes, Trump is personally responsible for much of the damage. In the already famous anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, a “senior official” wrote: “In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.” Trump demonstrated that once again in this week’s address to the UN general assembly. He is an activist of the Xi-Putin-Orbán sovereigntist front, that impossible international of nationalists, and a sworn enemy of liberal order.

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