Whether foreign leaders view the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House with hope or horror, the prospect of a Trump restoration is so deeply ingrained overseas that leaders in several countries have hedged their bets in diplomacy, security, and even where they invest their fortunes.
There were few signs that Trump’s indictment last week on criminal charges in New York has changed those calculations.
Foreign leaders have watched Trump bounce back from so many disasters, according to diplomats and foreign-policy experts, that they now regard his political resilience with something approaching fatalism. This is especially true in Europe, whose leaders spent four years enduring Trump’s hectoring on issues ranging from military spending to climate change.