Foreign policy analyst David Rothkopf says a “declining” Donald Trump is dragging American credibility abroad through the mud as he torches alliances that underpinned U.S. security for decades.
“For a hundred years, the U.S. has made building transatlantic relationships the foundation of peace and prosperity for us, and for many, many people in the world. And it’s over,” Rothkopf said on The Daily Beast Podcast. “Europe does not trust us anymore.”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Trump pressed ahead with his campaign against NATO allies, demanding immediate talks to acquire Greenland from Denmark and accusing the country of being “ungrateful” for U.S. actions in World War II.
The 79-year-old president, who confused Greenland for Iceland and appeared to forget he is president, told the audience of European business and political leaders that, were it not for the U.S., “you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese.”
Rothkopf observed, “It was a fiasco. It was a mess. Trump was embarrassing. Trump was offensive. Trump was a boor. Trump was an idiot.”
Trump had already alienated NATO allies in the days leading up to Davos by threatening tariffs over Greenland, leaking private messages from European leaders, and inviting Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to join his “Board of Peace.”
The aging commander-in-chief’s turn against European allies appears to be rooted in his belief that the U.S. holds the upper hand in the relationship. “Without us, most of the countries don’t even work,” he said during his speech in Switzerland.
But Rothkopf, the former editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy, noted that Europe’s economy is roughly the same size as the U.S.’s.
“Europe not only is big and important and leading in a lot of key technologies, but also, Europe has the ability to focus on China, to focus on others in the world in a way that really changes the equation for the United States,” he told host Joanna Coles.
Rothkopf, who said he attended the “cold and unpleasant” Davos summit for “many years,” warned that Trump’s turn against the U.S.’s post-World War II allies marks “a bright red line in history.”
“The world is not the world that it was when you woke up this morning. And it only promises to get worse and worse,” Rothkopf said.
Rothkopf argued that Trump, the oldest person ever inaugurated as president, is cognitively “declining.”
“I believe that everybody who is looking at this objectively thinks there’s something wrong with Trump,” he said. “Trump is certainly not the Trump he was a year ago, and he’s not the Trump he was 10 years ago. And, you know, he wasn’t so great to start out with, right?”
He argued that, unlike in Trump’s first term—when some advisers kept the president’s impulses in check—“he doesn’t have anybody like that around him” this time around: “They all snap to attention. Whenever he says something twice, they do it.”
Trump has faced increasing speculation surrounding his cognitive health, with multiple medical experts suggesting that his decline is readily apparent.
Psychologist Dr. John Gartner previously told The Daily Beast Podcast that he believes Trump is exhibiting a “massive increase” in “clinical signs of dementia,” citing his nonsensical speeches, tendency to change topics mid-sentence, and memory lapses.
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast in a statement, “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible and energetic President in modern American history. Anyone who would waste their time appearing on the Daily Beast podcast is a low life, left-wing loser whose opinion is not worth a damn.”
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