The message from an exhausted US hegemon

THE United States president was clearly frustrated with America's allies who turn to the US for assistance but don't always want to help shoulder the burden - military, financial or otherwise - of dealing with urgent global threats.

The president sounded very blunt, telling an interviewer that he had warned Nato allies that they would no longer be able to count on US assistance if they did not start spending at least 2 per cent of their GDP on defence. The leader of the free world insisted that US partners needed to take the lead and pull their weight on issues like terrorism and Russian aggression. And appearing weary of the never-ending demand and expectations placed on the US by America's allies across the Atlantic, the president complained that "free riders aggravate me".

No. That wasn't US President Donald Trump calling on Nato members to raise their financial contributions to the military alliance, as he did recently during his address before the military alliance's leaders in Brussels, igniting a storm of protests in European capitals and elsewhere. Critics denounced him as a "nationalist" and an "isolationist" who seemed intent on destroying the foundations of the post-World War II liberal international order.