Editor's note: Waging tariff fights, quitting international bodies, sowing dissent between the EU and Russia, confronting China on all fronts, the United States is rewriting its global role under Donald Trump. Is the country becoming a source of unrest in the world? CGTN Insight introduces Diagnosing America, a mini-series investigating what lies behind the United States' repeated challenges to the international order. The third episode is on the deteriorating U.S.-Europe relationship.

People tend to believe that U.S. President Donald Trump's insistence on monetary rewards and his demands being met is damaging the U.S.-Europe relationship. It's true. But, dwelling on this would be mistaking the symptom for the virus. What's really driving this trend is Trump's inability to resist grabbing any short-term benefit for his own political ends. As the 2020 elections approach, Trump has increasingly reverted to his nationalistic instincts and using this alliance as leverage to serve his bid for another four years in the White House.

Since Trump came to power, the U.S. relationship with Europe has been on a downward spiral. Negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership were halted by Trump on the basis that "international trade deals harm the U.S." The project, once described as potentially the largest trade deal ever made, was effectively abandoned in 2019 with the European Commission declaring it "obsolete and no longer relevant."

And from the start of his administration, Trump has claimed Europe isn't paying enough to NATO and threatened to withdraw U.S. military personnel from Europe. In late July, he announced that he's reducing the U.S. military presence in Germany by pulling 12,000 troops back. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, commander of the U.S. Army Europe from 2014 to 2017, slammed Trump on this decision: "It hurts us because it further damages the relationship with our most important ally... a 30-percent reduction of U.S. capability in Germany, disruption and further damage to our most important relationship."

The timing of the withdrawal is clear: Just as it did with China, the White House intends to make this an election issue, echoing 2016. It plays into the narrative that Trump wants to build: he is a "strong leader" who is prepared to stand up and put America first. In truth, he is just rebranding protectionism in his own image.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton provided important background in his recently published memoir "The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir." Both in the book and in subsequent interviews, he hit out at Trump's lack of basic professionalism. The president doesn't "understand the gravity of responsibility," and the "illegitimate" decision to pull troops out of Germany came in for special criticism: "Of course, it's not legitimate, but it's the way Donald Trump operates. He's not able to in many, many cases to distinguish his own personal interests and feelings from the national interest."

Bolton isn't the first to point out Trump's toxic habit of intertwining personal and national interests. American presidents have often intervened in world affairs. A difference is that Trump is doing it without tact or diplomacy, but with a naked desire to show dominance and self-benefit.

For example, the decision by the Trump administration to apply sanctions against companies involved in building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is all about control – America does not want Europe to be dependent upon energy supplies coming from Russia. European leaders quite reasonably believe that they're entitled to take their own decisions about where they buy their gas. Trump's "veiled hostility" towards the NATO military alliance and threats to withdraw from it altogether if Germany does not accede to American demands, further contributed to personal animosity between European leaders and the U.S. president.

Even in the United Kingdom, supposedly one of America's closest allies, the relationship was strained when Britain eventually gave in to pressure from the U.S. government over Huawei, with a government minister telling The Times newspaper: "It would make things much easier if Trump doesn't win re-election." Other European countries, including France, have made it clear they are unlikely to bow to U.S. pressure. If anything, given the frosty relations, an appeal from the White House is likely to push them in the opposite direction. 

There's a danger that economic protectionism could develop further, a worrying tactic which is easier to sell to the public if relations are poor. It is a strange, almost contradictory mix of an interventionist foreign policy and isolationist trade policy. America has never looked so isolated. But it appears not to bother Trump, at least in the lead-up the election. 

Trump's core supporters are in nearly perfect alignment with his policy stance – that the U.S. is exceptional and that the world is taking advantage of its generosity. As Trump trails in the polls and the disastrous second-quarter economic data suggests a tough recovery ahead, he needs an inducement to mobilize his supporters. And as the Europeans already begin to gamble on a Trump defeat, this might give him the juice he needs to energize his base.

And it could be argued that his tactics have stopped the bleeding. Polls in recent weeks show the gap between Trump and Biden is narrowing and that his approval ratings in the Midwestern states – those that he needs to win to succeed in the Electoral College – are gaining traction. He's wrecking relationships with adversaries and allies alike to satisfy his core constituents' hunger. And his push for European countries to do his bidding comes directly from his belief that the U.S. has helped the continent and that should be reciprocated. 

For Trump, alliance-forging and relationship-management are never a priority. His "America First" policy is the clearest directive for his administration to seize every advantage available, consequences be damned. His own political future and craving for short-term benefits rest above the U.S. national interest. For someone like him, as long as it is personally beneficial, there's no reason to stop. The U.S.-Europe relationship will continue to be strained and exploited to serve him – at least until November 3 (or January 20).

More in this series:

Pathogeny for U.S. withdrawal fever

Partisan politics drags U.S. towards failed-state status

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