In her annual address in France last week, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a proposal that would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago: a plan to make Canada the first “associate member” of the European Union.

What this arrangement would look like is unclear. It has no legal framework yet. It could include allowing Canadians to live, study, and work in Europe visa free; Canadian businesses access to the European Investment Bank; and countries to form new defense partnerships with the North American nation. But the details are almost secondary. Americans — including any closeted anti-Trump Republicans in Congress hoping for things to get back to normal once he leaves office — should see it and realize the damage is already done. The U.S. has rapidly transformed from a dependable guarantor of global security into a threat.

In his second term, Trump has put NATO in jeopardy, promising to pull the U.S. out of the alliance if other members don’t increase defense spending. He has used tariffs (or the potential of tariffs) to influence other countries’ domestic politics. He has publicly fantasized about making Canada the 51st state and often mused about attacking Greenland. That was all before the war with Iran.

The world could only take so much. With the United Nations meeting in New York City for much of September, it’s clear other countries are not waiting around for America to return to pre-Trump calm. Leaders are coming here to plan a world beyond the U.S., as former allies create a global order in which the U.S. not only no longer leads the free world but is considered a danger to it.

For the past 80 years, the U.S. has been at the center of the international economy and politics, having a hand in nearly everything and profiting greatly from that role. Now, smaller countries are establishing new links to form their own centers of gravity in a multipolar world.

At this year’s General Assembly, U.N. members are convening in part to figure out what the world needs to........

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