Barack Obama missed the chance to renew the World Bank’s global legitimacy, by failing to give up the American monopoly on its leadership. Donald Trump risks further weakening America’s influence on the global financial architecture by cutting the bank’s funding, as his so-called skinny budget proposes.

Reinforcing the world economy’s recovery is the top priority of central bank governors and finance ministers, who are gathering in Washington for the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But Mr Trump’s hostility to both Bretton Woods institutions, embodied by plans to cut the World Bank’s funding by $650m over three years, has shaken confidence.

Although tensions between Washington and the IMF are acute, the World Bank has the most to worry about. Ordinarily, Jim Yong Kim, its US-nominated president who last year was elected to a second term unopposed, would have used this week’s meetings to lay the groundwork for the first replenishment of bank capital since 2010. Given the signals from Washington, bank staff fear its most powerful shareholder will be in opposition, complicating the task of rallying support for the capital increase from others. For now, it is on hold.