PReactivity is the most precious currency of diplomacy. But he has been decidedly painful in Washington since January 20, while the Trump administration has mixed the domestic policy of foreign countries with abandonment.
This has made the work of many world diplomats much harder, because they find it difficult to calibrate the tone of their country towards Washington while soaring the constant unsubscription of anxiety radiating their patterns. Trade The spot and the tariff tiffs, reciprocity and revenge are all pile As President Donald Trump seems to hell to upset various long -standing alliances, as well as the formerly solid economy of the country.
Everything is done for a boom for foreign offices of well -positioned lobbying stores on King K, which have their choice of litter – and apparently no cost ceiling per month – for new customers while embassies are trying to track down The best American initiates who can help them six -digit sums every month so that the White House allies explain the land – if they can even find Lobby stores arranged to take another customer.
Canada and Denmark are currently providing a striking contrast in textbooks to respond to a sudden hostile while Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney takes a rigid arm tactic for the moment, others are like the Danes and try to welcome impulses.
“I know that these are dark days, dark days caused by a country in which we can no longer trust,” said Carney on Sunday after being elected the leader of his party during a landslide where Trump was roughly. A few months ago, the Liberals were preparing for a resounding defeat among an unhappy Canadian electorate. All this changed the day after Trump’s campaign for Canada become THE 51st statereminding Canadians that their leaders count.
The outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was even more direct than Carney in his recent farewell remarks: “Democracy is not a fact. Freedom is not a fact. Even Canada is not a fact. »»
This pessimism permeates the diplomatic community of Washington. Sometimes, it appears as a bit of a gallows humor – or the Freudian shift – as was recently the case when the Danish ambassador in Washington addressed a reception of business leaders, academics and investors.
“I would just like to raise our glasses in a long-standing toast between our two big nations, the United States of Denmark and the Kingdom,” said Jesper Møller Sørensen, captures in a room suddenly full of nervous laughs, since Trump is persistent by Trump’s persistent Trump requirements To remove Greenland from Denmark’s hands.
“Can I try this one again?” He asked. “You know what I mean.”
While the leaders of Denmark do not adopt the pugnacious position of Carney and Trudeau, they see their own political change linked to Trump, which should be played in Tuesday elections in Greenland, in which the country’s desire for independence is a lively postman.
More seriously, Denmark de facto Morten Bødskov, the Minister of Industry, Affairs and Financial Affairs, said one day after the failed toast that the kingdom, which covers more than half of the Greenland budget, was trying to keep a keel and preserve historic stability.
“The links between Denmark and the United States are extremely strong, and out of this, friendship and confidence and a simple way of doing things,” said the Danish political initiate, trying to keep his words underestimated and avoid any severe collateral damage by an American president Mercurial.
It is common prudence these days. Words like partnership,, allianceAnd friendship Bandy almost abundant along the embassy, but it is no secret that Trump brought a machete to the diplomatic universe. While upset decades of international standards, his own diplomats in the State Department are preparing to distribute cut And Hill Hands, in particular those who work on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations, try to master how serious the cuts will be.
Even Trump’s apologists are frank towards their counterparts in other governments.
“President Trump approaches diplomacy and engages in a very transactional way, with the economy as a foundation and engine of international affairs,” said Lieutenant-General Kellogg, the President’s special envoy last week for Ukraine and Russia.
In other words: there will be a winner and a loser, and Trump has no intention of being the latter.
Foreign diplomats get it and try to adapt if necessary without alienating, in many cases, their most important commercial economic ally. For example, 16% of the Danish export market ends in the United States up to around $ 40 billion.
Long -term hypotheses on American stable policy are no longer donors. Since Trump returned to power, he has side with – or at least excused – Russia in its invasion from Ukraine and recommended permanently demanding Palestinians of Gaza. A security guarantee for Taiwan is no longer supposed. And he even has suggested That the United States must take over the Panama canal, perhaps even by force.
These capricious movements and daring inversions have fueled anxiety in the diplomatic corps here in Washington, even though the allies and the parias try to give meaning at the time. Make Bødskov’s trip last month to the United States. The chief of charm of the charm of Denmark went to Texas before stopping in Washington to promote long -standing ties between Washington and Copenhagen, including a reception for business leaders and investors demonstrate a stable environment. Like so many other world leaders, his message was to underline the increase in the United States, noting that Danish companies employ around 200,000 Americans. But with Trump acts so openly for the control of Greenland, it becomes more difficult to maintain a friendly posture.
“There are new positions in Washington and the rhetoric is new. We must of course manage this, ”explains Bødskov. “The obligations between Danish companies and American companies are at the highest level of all time.”
But tensions too.