Photograph Source: Russian Presidential Executive Office – CC BY 4.0

What does friendship mean? How deep are historic diplomatic ties? Dramatically, President Trump announced tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the two closest U.S. neighbors and longstanding traditional allies as well as threatening tariffs against the European Union. Whether or not these tariffs are implemented, they are unfriendly menaces towards countries that are supposed to be U.S. partners. On the other hand, Trump seems sympathetic to Vladimir Putin, the leader of a country that has been an American adversary for some 80 years. As Mark Mazzetti observed in The New York Times: “The president [Trump] sees common cause with Mr. Putin, a merging of interests…”

How is the transactional Trump significantly transforming traditional U.S. alliances as well as relations with a hostile country that it almost went to nuclear war against? During French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Washington, Trump praised the historic relationship between the two countries; “France is America’s oldest ally, our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity and peace from the very beginning,” Mr. Trump said. During another late February visit, Trump called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “a very, very special person,” and talked about the United States and the U.K. having “a special relationship, like no other, passed down through centuries.”

That’s all wonderful. But if the two relationships are so special and historic, why did the United States vote against France and the United Kingdom at the U.N. General Assembly on a resolution condemning Russia as the aggressor in the war in Ukraine? Why did the United States........

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