Trump’s preference for autocrats over liberal democracies, first signaled by the 2017 Riyadh “orb” photo with the Saudi king and Egypt’s Sisi, continues through close ties with leaders such as Putin, Netanyahu and Erdogan, even as many of those same figures grow wary of his unpredictability. 

The newly announced Turkey–Pakistan–Saudi mutual security pact (the “Mecca Defense Pact”) shows U.S. military allies hedging against unreliable American security guarantees and preparing to rely more on one another. 

While Trump advances selective multilateral projects of his own (Board of Peace, Pax Silica, Abraham Accords, Quad), allies from the Middle East to Asia and Europe are quietly making contingency plans, underscoring the fading of the liberal international order and Pax Americana.

Remember that photo from Donald Trump’s first overseas trip as a president back in 2017?

The new president was in Riyadh. Instead of going to Europe or Japan or Canada, Trump was making his first presidential trip to Saudi Arabia. And there he was, at the opening of a new World Center for Countering Extremist Thought, flashing his trademark smirk as he put his hands on a glowing orb that represented the globe. Next to him, their hands also on the magic ball, were the Saudi king and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The three leaders looked like they were in a film, playing an evil trio plotting to take over the world. Twitter lit up with comparisons to the three witches from Macbeth. It was a terrifying irony that Trump and company were inaugurating a center for “countering extremist thought” since they all three, in their own way, represented the promotion of extremist thought.

This appearance in Saudi Arabia was effectively Trump’s announcement that the liberal international order was over. The new president didn’t want to associate with European liberals or Japanese democrats or Canadian moderates. He preferred the company of a military strongman from Egypt and a religious autocrat from Saudi Arabia. Their hands on the globe symbolized their desire to spin the world in a different direction.

A decade later, Trump can still be judged by the company he keeps. He’s buddies with war criminals like Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s........

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