Shockingly Trump is showing no commitment to using soft power to maintain alliances. This administration can only accelerate the loss of the US status as global hegemon as living under the US umbrella no longer feels secure if it can plausibly be whipped away for short term transactional gain

Recently in Adelaide, the Australia-US leadership “dialogue” between the business, bureaucratic and media elite of the two countries met for the 33rd time since its inception in 1992 … But this year, no-one from the Trump administration attended the “dialogue”. Americans were thin on the ground … The “dialogue” appears to be dead, at least for the Trump years.

A recent visit from an American official advised Canberra that the Pentagon had told Seoul that it did not regard Kim as a problem for the United States!

In his undoubted zeal for a summit with Xi and an apparent win in his trade war with China, it is reasonable to surmise that Trump surely may make Putin-like concessions to China even if it undermines the security of Taiwan.