The politics of gratitude: How Trump insists on thanks from foreign leaders

WASHINGTON – After US President Donald Trump

spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

last week, the White House wanted to make one thing clear: The Ukrainian leader was grateful to the American president. Very grateful.

The statement recounting the call mentioned four times that Mr Zelensky had thanked the US President for his efforts to negotiate terms of a ceasefire with Russia. It then went on to note that Zelensky was “grateful” for Mr Trump’s leadership.

The description revealed a pattern in the Trump administration’s shaping of its foreign policy agenda: When it comes to diplomacy, Mr Trump wants an implicit or explicit display of personal gratitude from US allies.

Mr Michael Froman, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Mr Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy suggests that he sees aiding US allies as a favour, rather than as a cornerstone of foreign policy that will pay dividends down the road.

“That does sort of signal a fundamentally different notion of order than we have had for the last 80 years, which is that while our allies need to step up and do more for their own defence, our support of their defense is also in our interest,” Mr Froman said. “I believe President Trump is questioning that.”

The starkest example of

Mr Trump’s insistence on a thank-you came during a meeting in February

in the Oval Office that included Mr Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance and Mr Zelensky.

“You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Mr Vance said, scolding the Ukrainian leader. The last words Mr Trump said to Mr Zelensky as he brought the meeting to a close were: “You’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing.”

Last week’s phone call was the first time the two have spoken since then.

Mr Trump appears to have taken a softer approach with Russia. In a description of a phone call between Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, no expressions of gratitude were noted.

Mr Trump’s desire for thanks is something of a shift in US diplomatic relations. It is not unusual for presidents to want recognition for contributions to military and humanitarian support; Former US president Joe Biden had his own frustrations with Mr Zelensky for relentlessly pushing for more.

But any friction between world leaders typically takes place behind closed doors, with a more restrained public description of a “full and frank discussion”.

White House officials defended Mr Trump’s approach.

“It’s called respect,” said Mr Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman.

“Every US president should demand that from both allies and adversaries, especially when being asked to contribute billions of taxpayer dollars in their defence,” Mr Fields said.

Ms Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defence policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute who also served as a national security aide to former US president George W. Bush, said Mr Trump treats “our allies like subjects instead of acting like peers”.

“What this signals is that in a strictly transactional global order, if you humble yourself in front of the American president, you can get what you want,” she added.

The parade of foreign visitors to the White House appears to have taken the hint.

Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte top-billed his remarks with Mr Trump earlier in March with “thank you so much”. He went on to credit Mr Trump, who has long railed against the organisation, for the alliance’s increased military spending and declined to defend Greenland, the territory of one of its members, from Mr Trump’s threat of a hostile takeover.

During a visit to the White House the same week, Mr Micheal Martin, the Prime Minister of Ireland, did not explicitly say the words “thank you”. Instead, he made a reference to Mr Trump’s personal investment in the country rather than respond to the US President’s complaint that Ireland was using a trade imbalance to take advantage of the US.

“You have the distinction of being, I think, the only president that has physically invested in Ireland through Doonbeg,” Mr Martin said of Mr Trump, referring to one of his properties. “It’s just stunning,” he added.

Mr Trump was smitten. “I love this guy,” he replied.

Even some of Mr Trump’s Cabinet members have started soliciting for thanks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio jumped into an exchange on social media between Poland’s foreign minister, Mr Radoslaw Sikorski, and billionaire Elon Musk about Starlink, the satellite internet service that Mr Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has been providing to Ukraine.

When Mr Sikorski asserted that the service was paid, in part, by the Polish Digitisation Ministry and warned Mr Musk against threatening to yank it, Mr Rubio accused him of “just making things up”.

In a post on social media, Mr Rubio said: “And say thank you because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.”

Mr Witold Zembaczynski, another Polish minister, wrote the words Mr Rubio demanded, but in support of Mr Sikorski.

“Thank you. It’s so simple #standwithukraine not with war criminalist #Putin.”

Mr Matt Duss, the executive vice-president at the Centre for International Policy, said Mr Trump has put on a “dominance display” throughout his career, both as a businessperson and politician.

“He approaches foreign policy, the US-led order, as a protection racket,” Mr Duss said. “If you want protection, you have to show respect to the boss, and you’ve got to pay upstairs.” NYTIMES