Why Trump was in full suck-up mode with autocrats before G-7

President Donald Trump’s penchant for pummeling allies while pampering adversaries was perversely apparent in the last few days.

In the run up to the G-7 summit in Quebec with Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan he began a bizarre trade war with most of them (a war that will hurt U.S. workers and companies). He waged ugly spats with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But when it came to America’s adversaries, Trump was in full suck-up mode. He proposed that Russia should be part of the G-7 meeting. (Vladimir Putin was ejected in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine.) Trump dropped sanctions against a Chinese telecom company that had threatened U.S. security. And the president suggested he might invite North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to the White House.

“We seem to want to punish our allies and befriend our enemies,” said Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker. Which raises the question of why the president is clearly more comfortable dealing with autocrats than with America’s democratic partners and friends.

Indeed, how can you explain Trump’s behavior toward Canada, our close neighbor and second-largest trading partner (almost equal to China), with whom we share a language, history, values and a peaceful border?

“The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable,” Trudeau told NBC last week. Yet in a testy phone call with Trudeau, Trump quipped, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” referring to the War of 1812. Of course, as usual, Trump had his facts wrong — it was the Brits who burned the White House.

But for Trump, infuriating allies with fake facts is just another day at the office. The cost of this bullying behavior is likely to be so high to U.S. workers and companies that it has sparked a bipartisan effort in Congress to block the improper use of “security threat” to start a trade war. However, much damage has already been done.

This Trumped-up trade war is symptomatic of the president’s cavalier attitude toward countries that share America’s democratic values. It’s not just that Trump has repeatedly denigrated NATO and the European Union. It’s not only that he rejects efforts to curb climate change and abandoned the Iran nuclear deal. It’s not simply that he showed, in his very ugly phone call last week with Macron, that he can’t stand any legitimate criticism from our closest allies.

What worries U.S. allies most is that Trump has made it clear he favors European populist parties of the far right — which stir fear and division — over traditional democratic parties. And he prefers autocrats like Putin to democrats like Germany’s Angela Merkel and Macron. Trump’s insistence that Putin should be restored to the G-7 is an unreciprocated gift to Moscow. And witness the dropped tariffs against China’s ZTE telecom company. “ZTE is a much greater national security threat than steel from … Europe,” tweeted Florida’s GOP Sen. Marco Rubio.

So what motivates Trump’s love for autocrats? Autocrats can act solo (and don’t have to worry about the rule of law). The president thinks he can do great deals mano a mano with tough guys.

On the contrary. As he breaks the alliances that multiply American strength, Trump is leaving himself alone without allies. He may prefer the axis of autocrats to the G-7, but those autocrats are out to undermine this country — and him.