President Donald Trump spent much of the last few days raging against Europe, NATO and the post-war international order.
When he arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he simultaneously said "I won't use force" to take Greenland, but added that the United States would be "unstoppable" if it did.
He railed against Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and said that "Canada lives because of the United States" and warned "Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements."
The day before, the Carney had warned that the old international order that had held together since the end of World War II was "midst of a rupture."
It seemed like Trump relished testing the world's patience, mocking longtime allies would "all be speaking German," seemingly ignorant of the fact that German is one of the three official languages of Switzerland.
Then, almost as swiftly as it began, Trump seemed to back out.
He announced almost immediately that he would abandon his plans to impose tariffs on NATO allies. This came after a "very productive" meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Naturally, this triggered mockery on Capitol Hill. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, immediately responded by saying "TACO," the acronym for "Trump always chickens out," a popular term on Wall Street for mocking Trump's tariffs.
But perhaps the most sobering assessment came from Rep. Don Bacon, a retiring Republican from Nebraska and a supporter of NATO.
"You don't threaten an ally, right? We don't. We treat our allies with more respect. We don't throw tariffs out there like popcorn, right? So I just so I'm glad he corrected it, but I think the damage has been done," he told Inside Washington.
Bacon added that he'd met with "a lot of ambassadors ... and elected leaders from Europe" on Tuesday and said he could tell there's "a lot of strain" on U.S. relations with the continent.
There probably will be no return from this rupture, as Carney described it. But for now, the world will take the reprieve until the next time Europe gets in Trump's craw.
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