MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump criticized U.S. allies who he said had taken advantage of this country. He also repeated his plans to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, and he suggested that an end to Russia's war on Ukraine might be close. This made us want to think about how Trump thinks about the world. So we asked NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson to consider that. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So Trump has always been very forthright, blunt, whatever you want to say, about what he thinks, but just looking at his remarks last night, what did they tell us about Trump's worldview?
LIASSON: They told us a lot. Foreign policy was not the No. 1 topic last night, but his remarks reminded us that in Trump's worldview, alliances are not a big factor. In his worldview, the United States stands alone. Sometimes alliances are burdens. They're a hindrance. Here's what he said last night about Greenland. He sent two kind of different messages at the same time.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland.
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TRUMP: We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America. We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it, really, for international world security, and I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it.
LIASSON: Yeah, so two messages - one pretty conciliatory - you get to determine your own future. The other - that veiled threat at the end - we're going to get it, one way or another. And he made similar remarks about Panama and the Panama Canal. Last night, he said the U.S. will be, quote, "reclaiming the Panama Canal." He said the canal was built by Americans for Americans. And he said the U.S. had already taken the first step by pointing to a purchase of Chinese-owned ports around the canal by the investment firm BlackRock.
And, you know, he repeated something also that he has long maintained, which is that the U.S. is taken advantage of by both its allies and its adversaries - friend and foe - and that's why the country needs reciprocal tariffs. Here's what he said.
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TRUMP: We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer.
LIASSON: Yeah, and Trump doesn't feel that the U.S. needs to engender goodwill by using soft power, and that's a big break from the past. As our colleague Franco Ordoñez noted earlier in the show, Trump spent a lot of time last night listing USAID projects overseas that he thinks are wasteful. And in the past, there's been a bipartisan consensus for a long time that if the U.S. spent small amounts of money overseas, it would engender goodwill and keep those countries on our side and not Russia's and China's.
MARTIN: So in this worldview, Mara, does the U.S. have allies? I mean, and if so, who are they?
LIASSON: Well, that's a very good question. Last week, in an Oval Office photo op, he said, I am not aligned with anyone. And, you know, the United States just voted in the United Nations with North Korea, Belarus, Iran and Russia. That's never happened before. Normally, you vote with countries that you're aligned with because of your mutual belief in certain values and principles. That's not part of his worldview. He also has a special animus for Europe. Western democracies were our closest allies, but now the president has been repeating Kremlin talking points, seeming to side with Russia in the conflict with Ukraine. But in terms of the E.U., he posted last week the E.U. was designed to screw us. Having said that, he believes the U.S. can use his deal-making abilities to forge peace, whether it's in the Middle East or Ukraine. Last night, he said he'd received a letter from Ukraine's President Zelenskyy. Here's what he said.
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TRUMP: Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you. I appreciate that he sent this letter. Just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously, we've had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn't that be beautiful? Wouldn't that be beautiful?
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LIASSON: So this, of course, comes after last week's disastrous meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump in the Oval Office - ended with Zelenskyy leaving the White House without a deal about minerals, because Trump thought he was being disrespectful.
MARTIN: So before we let you go, Mar, as briefly as you can, how far has President Trump moved U.S. policy on issues from what we've considered kind of the normal parameters set by previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat?
LIASSON: Very far. During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron last week, Trump said, quote, "his administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration and, frankly, the past." And he is absolutely correct. He's made a huge break. For 80 years, America was the lynchpin of NATO, the leader of the Western Alliance. And he has spurned European leaders, as I said, repeated Kremlin talking points. Called Zelenskyy a dictator and refused to say that about Vladimir Putin. So it's been a very big break.
MARTIN: That is NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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