In seven days, three pillars of American governance trembled. The question 38 countries are asking: who is in charge?
In seven days, three pillars of American governance trembled. And the entire world is watching — each from a different angle.

In seven days, three pillars of American governance trembled. The question 38 countries are asking: who is in charge?
In seven days, three pillars of American governance trembled. And the entire world is watching — each from a different angle.
Alliances: under threat
Thursday, Trump calls NATO a "paper tiger" and threatens to withdraw the United States from the alliance it founded 75 years ago (see our analysis).
The reaction differs with distance from Washington. Seoul highlights Germany's reaffirmation of its NATO commitment, not the American threat — South Korea is already looking for backup allies (see the Korean perspective). Canberra publishes 3 editorials in one week questioning American reliability — unprecedented since AUKUS in 2021. The word "kleptocracy" appears for the first time in a Sydney Morning Herald editorial to describe the Trump administration. Kyiv treats the crisis with the urgency of a country at war whose weapons come from Washington (see the Ukrainian perspective).
Moscow, unsurprisingly, is jubilant. RT does not even need to editorialize: Trump's own quotes are enough to validate Russia's thesis of an alliance in decline (see the Russian perspective).
Three crises, one question
Taken separately, these are three institutional crises. Taken together, they form a picture that the global press assembles differently depending on national interests — but whose conclusion is the same everywhere: the stability of the world's foremost power is in question.
For the 38 countries that The Refract covers, the question is not abstract. From Kyiv to Canberra, from Seoul to Islamabad, governments are recalculating in real time the value of an alliance with Washington. And every firing, every threat, every purge erodes that value a little more.
Bondi fired (Epstein files)
General George forced into retirement (during wartime)
NATO = paper tiger
3 pillars shaken in one week
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