After President Trump spoke on the phone with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine last week, the White House clearly wanted to understand: the Ukrainian chief was grateful to the American president. Very grateful.
The declaration Reporting the appeal mentioned four times that Mr. Zelensky thanked the president for his efforts to negotiate the conditions of a cease-fire with Russia. He then noted that Mr. Zelensky was “grateful” for Mr. Trump’s management.
The description revealed a model in the formatting by the Trump administration of its foreign policy program: with regard to diplomacy, Trump wants an implicit or explicit demonstration of personal gratitude of the American allies.
Michael Froman, the president of the foreign relations council, said that Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy suggests that he considers that the American allies help as a favor, rather than a cornerstone of foreign policy which will pour dividends on the road.
“This signals in a way a notion of order fundamentally different from that we have had in the past 80 years, that is to say that if our allies must intensify and do more for their own defense, our support for their defense is also in our interest,” said Mr. Froman. “I think President Trump questions him.”
The most brutal example of Trump’s insistence on a thanks came during A meeting last month at the Oval Office This included Trump, vice-president JD Vance and Mr. Zelensky.
“You should thank the president for trying to put an end to this conflict,” said Mr. Vance the Ukrainian chief. The last words that Mr. Trump said to Mr. Zelensky by ending Reunion was: “You don’t act at all grateful. And it’s not a good thing.”
Last week telephone call It was the first time that the two have been talking since then.
Trump seems to have adopted a softer approach with Russia. In a description of a telephone call between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin last week, no expression of gratitude was noted.
Mr. Trump’s desire for thanks is a change in American diplomatic relations. It is not uncommon for the presidents to wish recognition for contributions to military and humanitarian support; President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had his own frustrations with Mr. Zelensky for relentlessly For more.
But any friction between world leaders is generally taken place behind closed doors, with a more sober public description of a “complete and frank discussion”.
The White House officials defended Mr. Trump’s approach.
“It’s called respect,” said Harrison Fields, White House spokesperson.
“Each American president should demand that allies and adversaries, especially when they are asked to contribute billions of dollars to taxpayers for their defense,” said Fields.
Kori Schake, director of foreign policy and defense studies at the American Enterprise Institute who was also a national security assistant to President George W. Bush, said Trump treats “our allies as subjects instead of acting as peers”.
“What reports is that in a strictly transactional world order, if you humiliated yourself in front of the American president, you can get what you want,” she added.
The parade of foreign visitors to the White House seems to have taken the clue.
NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, made his comments best with Trump earlier this month with “Thank you very much”. He went to Credit Mr. Trump, who has long made his words against the organization, For the increase in military expenditure of the Alliance and refused to defend Greenland, the territory of one of its members, of the threat of Mr. Trump of a hostile takeover.
During A visit to the White House the same weekMicheál Martin, the Prime Minister of Ireland, did not explicitly say the words “thank you”. Instead, he referred to Mr. Trump’s personal investment in the country rather than responding to the president’s complaint that Ireland used a commercial imbalance to take advantage of the United States.
“You have the distinction of being, I think, the only president who has physically invested in Ireland by Doonbeg,” said Mr. Trump, referring to one of his properties. “It’s just beautiful,” he added.
Trump was struck. “I love this guy,” he replied.
Even some of Mr. Trump’s cabinet started to ask for thanks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio jumped into an exchange on social networks between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski, and Elon Musk about Starlink, the satellite internet service that Mr. Musk’s rocket company provided to Ukraine.
When Mr. Sikorski said that the service had been paid, in part, by the Department of Polish digitization And warned Mr. Musk against the threat To draw it, Mr. Rubio accused him of “I’m just doing things.”
In an article on social networks, Mr. Rubio said: “And thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war for a long time and the Russians would be on the border with Poland at the moment.”
Witold Zembaczynski, another Polish minister, wrote the words Mr. Rubio demanded, but in support of Mr. Sikorski.
“Thank you. It’s so simple #standwithukraine not with the war criminal #putin.”
Matt Duss, Executive Vice-President of the Center for International Policy, said Trump had a “dominance display” throughout his career, both as a businessman and politician.
“He addresses foreign policy, the order led by the United States, as a protective racket,” said Duss. “If you want protection, you have to be respecting the boss and you have to pay upstairs.”