The writer is a former senior US National Security Council and Department of State official

Ever since Donald Trump took office the first time, America’s allies around the world have debated the best way of dealing with the mercurial, unpredictable and sometimes vengeful US president. Faced with someone so desperate for attention and respect, is it better to satisfy those appetites with flattery, praise and compromise — or stand up to him and resist his demands? During Trump’s first term, most allies opted for the former approach. Now, faced with an even more assertive second-term president, they are taking obsequiousness to a new extreme.

The poster child for the strategy has been Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, who sent Trump fawning texts about his unique leadership abilities and famously called him “daddy”. But Rutte is far from alone. Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, told Trump she planned to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, said in their first meeting that Trump was “the only one who could solve” North Korea. In September, after Trump made concessions to Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, European leaders rushed to Washington, lavishly praising the US president. This month, Canada’s Mark Carney took it a step further, seeking to stay on Trump’s good side by apologising for a factual television ad about tariffs that he had nothing to do with.