Trump’s Win Ends a Post-World War II Era of U.S. Leadership

It was only four months ago that President Biden invited America’s NATO allies to Washington to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their alliance, the symbol of an era of American global leadership that once was celebrated as a cornerstone of democracy and the best way to keep the peace among great powers.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has made no secret of his desire to oversee the destruction of that world order. In his first term, he really didn’t know how, and his moves were countered by an entrenched establishment.

Now, he has made clear, he has the knowledge, the motivation and a plan.

If Mr. Trump makes good on the promises of his campaign, the age of largely free trade will be replaced with tariffs — the “most beautiful word” in the English language, he argues, with no reference to the fact that the approach contributed to the Great Depression.

Some democratic allies may still fall under the protection of America’s nuclear umbrella, but it will be more a matter of the new president’s whims than any treaty obligations. During the campaign, Mr. Trump famously said he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members that did not contribute enough. Even if the United States remains, on paper, one of the key members of the Atlantic alliance, Mr. Trump’s public musings on whether he will fulfill the treaty obligations Washington signed up to in 1949 could be enough to corrode the institution from the inside.

Moreover, the American mission that George W. Bush declared at his second inaugural, almost two decades ago, “to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture,” is now officially over.

For the past four years, President Biden has been arguing that the first Trump term was a blip in American history, not a turning point. At his first meeting of the nation’s closest allies, he declared that “America is back,” and promised to restore a world in which the United States could be relied upon.