Not only is the emperor wearing no clothes, but he is standing alone in front of a world that is laughing at him.
President Donald Trump addressed top political leaders from around the world at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21. During the speech, Trump revisited his old, grievance-filled hits, such as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and the 2020 election being stolen. He was tilting at windmills, both literally and figuratively. He also appeared confused, mixing up Greenland with Iceland on more than one occasion.
But perhaps the most damaging part of his speech was the way Trump spoke of our North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. The casualties of his words and recent actions may be irreparable in the world’s eyes.
America needs allies to stay safe, but Trump’s narcissistic foreign policy tactics will never admit that. Trump’s foreign policy views are based on what he wants or what he thinks might benefit him, and rather than true isolationism, he treats security guarantees as protection rackets rather than as mutual interests.
This vision of solitary strength appeals to those who see alliances as burdens, foreign entanglements as traps, and international cooperation as weakness. But this thinking fundamentally misunderstands how power works in the modern world and ignores the hard experiences of history.
Alliances are not charity. They are investments in American security that return dividends far exceeding their costs. Consider the global network of military bases that enables American strength. From Ramstein in Germany to Japan, Qatar to Australia, these installations exist because host nations permit them.
Without allied cooperation, the United States would lose its ability to respond rapidly to threats, collect critical intelligence, and maintain credible deterrence against adversaries.
The intelligence sharing among Five Eyes partners, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, provides capabilities no single nation could replicate alone. This cooperation depends on decades of trust. Treating allies as transactional partners erodes that trust and the unique access it provides.
Maintaining the United States' technological advantage also depends on allied cooperation. The most advanced semiconductors powering everything from smartphones to weapons systems come from Taiwan and South Korea. Leading-edge research happens in partnerships spanning allied universities and laboratories. Supply chains for critical technologies stretch across friendly nations. Alienating these partners doesn't make America more independent; it makes the country more vulnerable to disruption and weakness.
Trump seems incapable of recognizing the ultimate, and non-quantifiable sacrifice that our NATO partners made. When the United States invoked NATO Article 5 after Sept. 11, allied nations answered. They fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq, with over 1,000 non-American NATO troops giving their lives in that conflict.
Denmark, which has sovereignty over Greenland, suffered 43 fatalities in the war in Afghanistan, the highest loss per capita within the coalition forces.
It is particularly repulsive when Trump said, “The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO. I want to tell you that. And when you think about it, nobody can dispute it. We give so much, and we get so little in return. And I've been a critic of NATO for many years. And yet I've done more to help NATO than any other president by far than any other person.”
Trump is no student of history because if he were, he would understand that it can provide a strong warning. In the 1930s, democratic nations failed to maintain their alliances and stand together against rising authoritarianism. The result was the most destructive war in human history. The postwar alliance system was built on that painful lesson: collective security prevents conflicts that cost far more than alliance maintenance ever could.
America standing alone isn't a strength; it's strategic suicide. In a dangerous world, allies fortify American power, extend its reach, share its obligations, and provide the partnerships necessary for addressing threats no nation can face successfully in isolation. The choice isn't between independence and entanglement; it's between security through cooperation and vulnerability through isolation.
So, the big cheese stands alone, and Americans are less safe because of it.
Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She holds a master's of science in political science as well as a bachelor's of science in nursing.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.