Under Trump, America's new friends: Russia, North Korea and Belarus

WASHINGTON — If the old adage that you are known by your friends is true, then President Donald Trump may be telling the world something about who he plans to be in his second term.

In a move that reshaped the international order, Trump had the United States vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war.

Among the countries Trump has joined in siding with Russia are North Korea, Belarus and Sudan.

Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and most of the rest of the world.

It would be hard to think of a clearer demonstration of how radically Trump is recalibrating America’s place in the world after barely a month in office.

It is putting the United States on the side of the world's major rogue states as opposed to countries that have been America's closest friends since World War II or before.

The severing of America's ties with its traditional allies has profound implications for the future of American foreign policy.

As the leaders of Poland, France and Britain head to Washington this week to try to woo Trump back into the fold, they and their countrymen are confronting the reality that he neither shares their values ​​nor sees their priorities as aligned with American interests.

If the United States is to align itself with international pariahs like Russia and the others, it could force Europe, Canada and Asian allies like Japan and South Korea to go their own way and look for alliances elsewhere.

At the same time, Trump's deference to Moscow has allowed Russia to break out of the chamber of diplomatic isolation that Washington and the West have tried to build in the three years since their full invasion of Ukraine.

“Trump is transparently and shamelessly doing Russia’s bidding in this and many other ways, aligning the United States with our adversaries and against our treaty allies,” said Susan E. Rice, who served as President Barack Obama ’s ambassador to the United Nations and later as his national security adviser.

“We all have to ask ourselves why.”

European leaders were stunned and bewildered by the U.S. vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, as well as by U.S. pressure for the Security Council to pass an alternative resolution that did not blame Russia for the invasion.

On that measure, the United States, China and Russia voted together, while Britain, France and other European nations abstained.

Even some Republicans, who have taken pains to avoid publicly breaking with Trump even over decisions they privately deplored, were eventually provoked to speak out.

“I was deeply troubled by today’s vote at the UN that put us on the same side as Russia and North Korea,” Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, wrote on social media.

“These are not our friends. This stance is a dramatic departure from American ideals of freedom and democracy. We all want an end to the war, but it must be achieved on terms that ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security and deter Putin from pursuing further territorial ambitions.”

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., expressed dismay that the president was siding with the invader.

“The Trump administration made a huge mistake today in Ukraine,” he said online.

“The vast majority of Americans stand for independence, liberty, and free markets, and are against the abuser and invader.”

Trump's advisers argue that he is entering into a complicated and delicate negotiation to end the war and that those who criticize him for adopting Russia's talking points must oppose ending the violence in Ukraine.

The last president, Joe Biden , did not make peace, so Trump's approach must be better, or so the reasoning goes.

“The president knows how to make a deal better than anyone who has ever been president of the United States, and to make a deal, you have to bring both sides to the table,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at her Tuesday briefing.

“And usually, when a good deal is made, both parties leave the table a little unhappy.”

But if the goal was not to distance himself from President Vladimir Putin of Russia as Trump seeks a deal, he has shown no reluctance to distance himself from the person on the other side of the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

While refusing to criticize Putin or Russia, Trump falsely claimed Ukraine “started” the war and called the popularly elected Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”

The United States has rarely found common cause with countries like North Korea and Belarus on major issues, while maintaining a rigid stance with Britain and France.

A 2023 State Department report found that among the countries with which the United States voted most frequently at the United Nations that year were Canada, Britain, Australia and France.

The countries with which the United States disagreed most in the controversial votes at the UN were Syria, Nicaragua, Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba, Belarus and Russia.

The main area where the United States often finds itself at odds with its major allies is the Israel-Palestine conflict, where the United States has mostly opposed UN resolutions critical of Israel, although European nations more often vote in favor.

Former UN diplomats said they could not recall a time when the United States had joined Russia and other outlier states on an issue of such importance.

“When I was ambassador to the UN, if I had been instructed by the State Department and the White House to leave our European allies behind and vote with the axis of autocrats, including Russia, North Korea and Belarus, I would have concluded that the Russians had hacked and corrupted our communications systems,” Rice said.

Trump shows no concern about being left out of the global consensus.

He hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France this week without apparent rancor, even as the visiting leader tried to gently coax him to be more cautious toward Russia and more willing to defend Ukraine's security.

Trump smiled and shook hands and seemed completely unfazed.

He will host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Thursday for another session that will further test the new reality of the Atlantic alliance as the British leader seeks to convey the importance Europe places on staying united with the United States.

But European officials do not hold out much hope for success.

The reality is that Trump is not offended by leaders like Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un .

Trump has always expressed his admiration for autocrats.

On the wall of his office at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House in 2021, he cheerfully hung a photo of himself with Kim, a ruthless dictator whose government is accused by the State Department of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, repression, forced abortions and forced sterilizations, among other human rights abuses.

Other presidents have made common cause with unsavory figures and countries in realpolitik concessions to national interests, but usually without much enthusiasm and not at the expense of close allies.

And Trump is willing to go further than most of his predecessors.

During a press conference with Macron, the president mentioned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman .

The CIA has named the prince a killer, saying he ordered the brutal murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post .

Trump called the prince "a fantastic young man" who is "tremendously respected around the world."

Trump had no words of praise for Zelensky, the embattled leader of a democracy overrun by a dictatorship.

Ukraine is not part of the US alignment as Trump imagines.

While the United States was the only Group of 7 country to vote against the U.N. resolution, Trump is effectively forming a new club, one with chapters in Moscow, Minsk and Pyongyang rather than London, Paris and Berlin.

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