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Conrad Black: How Trump’s Unorthodox Strategy Is Strengthening the Democratic World

Conrad Black: How Trump’s Unorthodox Strategy Is Strengthening the Democratic World
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos on Jan. 21, 2026. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Commentary

Because of President Trump’s technique of opening almost any negotiation with outrageous threats and claims and then slowly retreating as the other side makes concessions, his entire presidency can easily be presented as fundamentally disruptive. In fact, there is ample evidence that he is negotiating towards adjusted American relationships with the world in a way that more closely reflects both the U.S. national interest and the end of a bipolarized global power structure, along with the emergence since the end of the Cold War of a great many countries exercising more freedom of action and a greater level of economic development than they previously enjoyed.

Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Author
Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. He’s the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently, “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other,” which has been republished in updated form. Follow Conrad Black with Bill Bennett and Victor Davis Hanson on their podcast Scholars and Sense.