An open letter to President Trump
Dear President Trump,
America’s friends are running out of ways to tell you that your policies are having entirely the opposite effect than their purported aims. They aren’t making America first, or great, or secure. On the contrary, they are isolating, weakening and destabilising America – and fracturing the Western alliance it is supposed to lead.
You see, America’s allies comprise the single greatest asymmetrical advantage it enjoys over its adversaries. By combining capabilities, expanding reach and enhancing effectiveness, allies are indispensable as force multipliers. And because our alliance is built on shared values, not just on overlapping interests or common adversaries, they are equally vital in reinforcing America’s global leadership.
Deprive America of its moral leadership and its allies, and you might as well hand over its reins to Moscow or Beijing.
As I too am running out of ways to make this point, let me try one last time using an admittedly odd analogy. Your hands. Yes, your famous hands.
Start by looking at your right hand. Think of it as the Five Eyes alliance.
Now look at your left hand. Think of it as Europe.
Now place both your hands in front of you. What you have is the Western alliance.
Let’s return to your right hand. As you see, each finger is distinct. Each has its own size, reach, strength and specialty. Yet together, they enable your hand to grip, lift, build, defend and strike. The five fingers are the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. United, these five countries can extend influence, project power, advance shared interests and deter threats across far-flung geographies — from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the Americas to Africa and Asia, and across the vast Pacific.
The UK and the U.S. might be thought of as the thumb and the index finger. Their “special relationship” allows for reach, dexterity, grip, precision, strength and stability that neither could achieve alone — and that no other pairing of fingers can replicate. It is the bedrock of the world order they shaped together and that the U.S. now leads. Divorce the thumb from the index finger, and you might as well abandon your whole hand.
But the key point is not that one pairing matters more than the rest. The hand works best when all potential combinations between fingers remain possible. The U.S. is coupled with Canada in NORAD. It works together with the UK and Australia through AUKUS. It shares intelligence with the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand through FVEY. It collaborates with the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan through the Partners in the Blue Pacific.
Unity, not uniformity, and cooperation, not coercion, are what makes the hand effective.
Now let’s look at your left hand. Try some different hand movements: bend your hand downward and then bend it upward, close your fist and then open it, turn your palm down and then up, now spread your fingers apart and then bring them back together again. Together, these movements help you communicate; shape or use objects; engage in tasks requiring fine motor skills; and defend or strike.
Think of Europe as the bones of this hand that make this possible – the essential carpals, metacarpals and phalanges that provide structure, shape and support; enable greater movement, wider reach, fuller control, more precise action and more effective defence; and allow you to lift heavier loads and accomplish more complex tasks that would be so much harder – perhaps impossible – to complete otherwise.
Think of the UK as the thumb in both your hands, not necessarily the largest or strongest finger in either pack but one that is indispensable to almost every function you might wish to perform. It is not that the U.S. cannot accomplish things alone, but that it can engage in a wider array of tasks more successfully alongside its allies. Here too, the key point is not that one pairing matters more than the rest, but that the hand works best when all potential combinations between fingers remain possible. We are stronger together.
Now, you may find that one of your hands is more dominant than the other, but this is partly because for the last eight decades, the prevailing preference was for one hand to lead on certain tasks that required greater strength, while the other provided complementary support from within the security umbrella. The question for you is whether you see one hand as a rival to the other that must necessarily be squashed or dismembered so one can dominate, or as a partner to the other that ought to be better resourced and better exercised to level up its capabilities so the body can engage in a wider array of tasks, deter threats more effectively and project power more extensively?
Calling on Europe to increase its defence spending was tantamount to rebuilding the strength and capabilities of the hand that had grown weaker in this area in recent decades. Calling into question the wisdom of the UK in handing over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – tantamount to saying it had permitted the weakening of an otherwise strong hand as opposed to the purported aim of securing its interests for 99 years – is also a point where allies must feel free to challenge one another.
Yet, your posture in relation to Greenland is every bit as odd as your right hand demanding the dismemberment of your left hand so your right hand can have total and complete control over one of its fingers. Sounds a bit gross, doesn’t it? A long list of motley reasons doesn’t make this risky surgical procedure more palatable, does it? Threatening to beat your left hand with a cudgel if it doesn’t let you slice its finger off with a knife doesn’t leave you or it better off in either scenario, does it? You seem to forget that both hands are part of the same body; your left hand is already investing much more in its defence; and your right hand already has the full operational freedom to defend it if required.
The amputation and organ transplantation you seem to care so much about does not make either hand or the body safer, stronger and greater. It simply destroys both hands; disrupts coordination and interoperability; creates awkwardness and tension; and presents a much greater risk of gangrene spreading rapidly. It is an inexplicable act of self-harm that sickens and weakens the whole body. There is no threat that Russia or China could ever inflict on the U.S. that could match so epic an act of self-destruction as the U.S. annexing Greenland and undermining NATO.
Now, I really wish to believe that harming and humiliating America is not your intention, and equally that you do genuinely seek to strengthen the Western alliance – and simply that you have surrounded yourself with so many ambitious aides that you do not have anyone with the courage to whisper the truth in your ear. Rather than judge you, I do wish to help you, so may I encourage you to think of the popular meme that contrasts “What I Think I Look Like’ with ‘What I Actually Look Like”. It will not hurt you if you paused to consider every now and then, “What I Think I Sound Like vs What I Actually Sound Like” and “What I Think I Am Doing vs What I Am Actually Doing”.
It might help you more than you now realise – and then there is always the analogy of your hands to which you could return.
When the U.S. pursues isolationism, it is as if the index finger of one hand declared itself so large, so strong and so capable that it no longer needs the rest of that hand, or the other hand, or the body. But disconnected from the hand and the rest of the body, the finger does not become freer. It loses circulation, coordination and leverage. Alone, it cannot grip anything meaningful. Since the Second World War, American power has never rested on standing apart, but on acting first with the knowledge that the rest of the hand will move with it.
Consider another scenario. When the US flirts with the idea of annexing Canada as its 51st state, it is like one finger deciding it would be better off if it seized the finger next to it and glued it to itself. Two fingers forcibly fused together do not become stronger than two fingers freely acting in unison. Instead, they lose strength, agility and dexterity. Alliances work because cooperation is voluntary. Force breaks the hand; consent makes it functional.
Let’s look at a third scenario. When the US imposes tariffs on the UK, it is as if the index finger thought it wise to suspend a heavy weight from the thumb to coerce compliance. The thumb hurts, certainly — but so does the index finger, dragged down by the very pressure it applies. The UK and the U.S. are so intertwined politically, economically and culturally that you simply cannot hurt one without also harming the other. Economic coercion within an alliance is not strength; it is friction. And friction inside the hand weakens its grip on the world.
Now consider a darker scenario. A hostile third party grabs one finger of your left hand and violently yanks it, claiming it now belongs to them. Would you, as the “President of Peace”, argue that the best solution is to cut your finger in half so the attacker can keep the part it seized? That is how many hear American ambivalence toward Ukraine after its invasion by Russia. Peace achieved through dismemberment is not peace. It is surrender. It is a signal — to the same attacker and to others — that grabbing territory by force pays. The next finger will be tested soon enough.
Respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity is not moral indulgence. It is strategic self-interest. A body that tolerates the loss of one finger soon discovers how vulnerable the rest has become.
Now let’s look at NATO. NATO is not an act of American philanthropy. It is vital to the anatomy of American power, an America-led world order and American global leadership. It binds the hands together so that an attack on one part of the body is understood as a threat to the whole. Deterrence works precisely because a would-be attacker knows the entire body will respond. And indeed, the only time Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was ever triggered was when the US was attacked on September 11, 2001.
The U.S. plays a unique role in this system — not as the owner of the body, but as its coordinator. Leadership means mobilising, not fusing; inspiring, not coercing; uniting, not dividing.
Alliances are not a burden. They are force multipliers. They extend reach, legitimacy and influence far beyond what raw power alone can achieve. A strong America does not squash, abandon or dismember a hand. It makes sure both hands work and are put to good use. I hope the next chapter of your leadership sees you level up the strength and capabilities of both hands, while preserving their distinctiveness and integrity.
Think about it for a minute. You say you require Greenland because the Russians would take it otherwise, but if this were true, the Kremlin should be very, very worried about you taking over Greenland. Instead, they are gloating, opportunistically encouraging you to do so. The Kremlin clearly understands more than some of your advisers seem to do that a weak and divided transatlantic alliance marks the end of the U.S. as the global hegemon. Wouldn’t that be great news for the Kremlin?
I would very much hope you realise before it is too late that not everyone who praises you is a friend and not everyone who questions you is a foe. When you are about to commit a blunder by jumping into a deep, dark well, he who tells you you will make world history by doing so isn’t your ally but your adversary. He who asks you to stop isn’t your adversary but your ally. I find it sad that I need to state something so blatantly obvious to someone twice my age, but I am happy to repeat this to you for as long as you need.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arctic Today.
Dr. Dwayne Menezes is a historian, foreign policy expert, and social entrepreneur specializing in the Commonwealth and Polar Regions. He is the founder of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative, a London-based international think-tank dedicated to Arctic, Nordic and Antarctic affairs.
With a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Menezes has held academic and policy roles, including advising the Commonwealth and the UK Parliament. He is also a published author and associate producer of award-winning films.
