I recently wrote that our form of government, established by the U.S. Constitution, has collapsed. The shredding of that centuries-old document, and its substitution with an imperial presidency, has serious implications both at home and overseas.

While much attention has been paid to President Trump’s usurpation of powers granted to Congress and his challenges to the courts, his remaking of the presidency into an American-style kingship has serious foreign policy ramifications.

In an interview, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, listed for me the damage done during the early days of the Trump presidency:

• The weakening of NATO, which provided stability to the post-World War Two world.
• A pervasive doubt among our allies that “if America does something, we would stick with it.”
• The dismantling of the FBI section charged with enforcing sanctions on Russia.
• Trump’s refusal to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Reed says, “is an invitation to establish a quid pro quo for the Russians.”
• The dismantling of USAID, which provided support for maternity, tuberculosis, and AIDS cases in Africa and allowing Russia and China to fill the void.
• The “silly dialogue” about Canada becoming the 51st state that, according to Reed, “has no coherence strategically and is just delusional.”

The damage, Reed concludes, is a foreign policy “in total disarray.”

The view from abroad is just as bleak. Former Lithuanian ambassador to NATO Ginte Damusis wrote to me via email: “The bromance between Presidents Trump and Putin makes many of us writhe in agonizing discomfort.”

The result, says Damusis, is a “tectonic shift in America’s relationship with Europe that is not for the better. It seems as if President Trump’s goal is to strike fear into the heart not of America’s enemies but rather its friends.”........

© The Hill