very real sense in which Trump is already President. Foreign leaders have seen neither hide nor hair of Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris is an absolute cipher. So they understandably turn to Mar-a-Lago.
I doubt that there is any precedent for a president-elect assuming such international importance prior to his inauguration. To some extent, this may be due to the fact that Trump has a certain status as a former president. To a greater extent, it reflects the fact that Joe Biden is a nonentity–a president in name only. But most of all, I think it reflects a hunger for strong and effective leadership across the Western world. Let’s hope that Trump can live up to the expectations.