Trump increasingly isolated as the world turns its back on him: ex-admin official

The UK was rocked by yet another political bombshell when, on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation. U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to react to the Labour Party leader's resignation, and according to former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, Trump's reaction speaks volumes about his mindset — and shows how dangerous he is from a national security/foreign policy standpoint.

Trump angrily attacked Starmer on immigration and energy policy; Taylor, writing for the UK-based i Paper, characterizes Trump's reaction to the news as him attacking "the patient" while he was "still on the table" doing "a small dance on the grave for the cameras."

"Set aside, for a moment, whether Starmer deserved to fall," Taylor writes. "What should arrest us is the foreign policy implication of what we just witnessed. This isn't how one ally treats another, a nation with which it purports to have a 'special relationship.' When a partner government collapses — particularly one that spent the past year rallying Europe behind Ukraine — the customary American instinct should be a respectful word and quiet hope for continuity. Trump's instinct was to celebrate, again wading into the domestic politics of a friend in ways that will surely sour the relationship further. None of this surprises me."

The conservative Taylor worked closely with Trump during his first presidency as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But after leaving the first Trump administration, Taylor went on to openly criticize him — rooting for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024. And Trump's reaction to Starmer's resignation, Taylor argues, is a prime example of the disrespect and contempt he routinely shows foreign leaders and longtime U.S. allies.

"When I served in Trump's first term," the former DHS official recalls in the i Paper, "I saw that he did not regard foreign leaders as counterparts in a shared project. In meetings behind closed doors, he sorted them into perceived 'winners' and 'losers,' and once they'd been filed under 'loser,' he'd work to trash the relationship. Allies, in this worldview, are not partners to be kept but props to be used and, when their usefulness lapses, discarded with a dismissive hand wave or with a stubby orange middle finger. In particular, his ire was directed at western democracies."

Taylor adds, "Trump seemed to sense their judgement. They favored the rule of law. He favored the rule of one."

Taylor points to Trump's recent clash with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as another example of how quick he is to burn bridges.

"A year ago," the Never Trump conservative observes, "she was Trump's 'closest' friend in Europe, the only EU head of government to attend his second inauguration, and a self-styled bridge between Washington and a wary continent. Last week, after Trump claimed she had 'begged' him for a photograph at the G7, she called the story completely fabricated and went further than any European leader has dared.

'My popularity is none of your concern,' she told him. 'I suggest you focus on yours'…. A Trump who sees independence as betrayal doesn't grow chastened. Typically, he grows angrier, and an angry Trump treats anger as license to destroy…. Trump wanted America to turn its back on the world, but he may yet get the world turning its back on him. Unfortunately for all of us, an isolated power is not usually a calmer one."

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