Since the start of the year, President Donald Trump’s campaign to upend global and domestic politics has been in overdrive. The U.S. military action in Venezuela on Jan. 3, which ended with the seizure and rendition of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife to New York, was just the beginning. In Minneapolis, the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has led to mass protests and increased tension between state officials and the Trump administration. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was placed under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, exacerbating concerns about the central bank’s independence once he leaves office.
And over the weekend, Trump pledged to place new tariffs on eight European countries for their opposition to the U.S. acquiring Greenland. With both German and French officials calling for forceful retaliatory measures and the European Union announcing an emergency leaders’ summit to discuss the bloc’s response, a new trade war between Europe and the U.S. is now possible. Beyond that, Trump’s fixation on Greenland, which shows no sign of abating, risks the future of the NATO alliance.
And yet against the backdrop of all that, a short but momentous state visit by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Beijing might be the most important harbinger of long-term changes in relations between the U.S. and its liberal democratic allies around the world. During what was the first state visit to China by a Canadian prime minister in nearly a decade, the two sides announced a new strategic partnership, and Carney said that China is a “more predictable” partner than the United States.