Trump: Apprentice-President, Failing Entertainer, or Disrupter-in-Chief? Three Possible Pathways for Trump's Foreign Policy

America’s Secretary of Defense James Mattis made his first trip to Europe in February to discuss plans to fight against Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, plans that Trump demanded the Pentagon devise within 30 days. While European defense chiefs certainly engaged with the former general on his recommendations to the White House, they also let it be known that their primary topic of discussion in Brussels and at the subsequent Munich Security Conference was the future of transatlantic relations and the state of European Union cooperation in security and defense. America’s close European allies are anxious about the Trump administration’s commitment to Europe, NATO and the liberal international world order that the U.S. created after the Second World War. Are they right to be concerned? This article outlines three possible pathways for the future of U.S. foreign policy and considers which course of action might be the most dangerous for the future of European security