Donald Trump is alone.
That’s different from the United States being alone.
We – that is, the vast majority of Americans who were against Trump’s war from the start, and who support Nato and the United Nations charter and the post-second world war system of alliances and rules – are not alone.
Most of the people of the United States stand with most democracies of the world.
When Trump’s call to America’s traditional allies for assistance clearing the strait of Hormuz was rebuffed by those allies, those allies didn’t rebuff the United States. They rebuffed the person in the Oval Office who didn’t even consult with them before launching this war.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said his country “will never take part in operations to open or liberate the strait of Hormuz in the current context.” (Trump responded, “He’ll be out of office very soon.”) Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, said that Canada “was not consulted prior to the offensive operation” and “has no intention of participating in” it. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said the UK would not be “drawn into the wider war”.
And so on.
So, like an angry five-year-old whose friends refuse to come to his party because he shouts at them and never shares his toys, Trump exploded: “[W]e no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance – WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea,” he added. “In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
May I be so bold as to address myself to America’s allies and friends?
In point of fact, we the people of the United States do need your help.
We need your help fighting the global climate crisis.
We need your help heading off pandemics.
We need your help countering global criminal gangs that are trafficking people and dangerous drugs and weapons.
We need your help fighting global poverty, hunger and disease.
We need your help safeguarding freedom and democracy from authoritarian regimes intent on extinguishing freedom and democracy around the world.
It’s important that you, the citizens of other democracies, know that the vast majority of us – the people of the United States – are embarrassed and offended by the oaf who now occupies the highest office in the United States.
He does not speak for us. He is not making decisions based on our welfare, let alone the wellbeing of the rest of you. Please don’t confuse him for us.
We are trying our best to resist him, contain him, protest against him and remove him from office as quickly as we possibly can.
Thank you for your patience.
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Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
