When Sanae Takaichi met Donald Trump this week, she had some good news. The new Japanese prime minister was nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. In doing so, Japan followed in the footsteps of the governments of Cambodia, Pakistan and Israel.
Flattering Trump — and catering to his obsessions — is now standard practice for foreign leaders. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, used his first Oval Office meeting with Trump to unveil an invitation to a second state visit to the UK. This, he emphasised, was “truly historic” and “unprecedented”.
This kind of fawning behaviour is undignified. But, a year on from Trump’s re-election, America’s allies have concluded that it is indispensable. To an extent that is genuinely unprecedented in the modern era, US foreign policy is driven by the personal whims of the president.