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The Fourth of July has passed and Donald Trump is getting ready to reprise his foreign affairs act of early June. Following his acrimonious performance at the G7 meeting in Canada June 9, he jetted off to Singapore for the summit meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Despite the glitzy optics and Trump’s post-meeting proclamation that “North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat”, recent intelligence reports indicate that Kim’s regime is working to preserve its nuclear stockpile and conceal production facilities. Those in foreign policy circles who worried that Trump would give away more than he got feel vindicated. The despotic leader of the hermit kingdom was effectively normalized by being allowed to share the stage with an American President. In return, Trump received empty promises and a photo-op. It was not a Nobel-worthy accomplishment.

So now Trump will repeat the sequence of allies-to-dictator meetings when he heads to Brussels for the July 11-12 NATO summit and follows that up with a meeting in Helsinki on July 16 with Vladimir Putin. European leaders are anxious to avoid a repeat of the G7 debacle but there is palpable concern that Trump will disrupt efforts to present a unified front as part of NATO’s strategy of the containment of Russia in Eastern Europe. Trump has spoken about withdrawing US troops from Germany and, as he did throughout his campaign for President, complained about our NATO allies not paying their fair share for defense. The fear is Trump, as he did with Kim, will give away something for nothing when he meets with Putin. These fears have heightened with reports that Trump requested he meet with Putin alone initially- no note-takers or any staff except for translators. There will be no record of this discussion. Although the stated agenda of the summit is to discuss Syria, Iran, and the Ukraine, the idea that Trump will recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea has gained traction. National Security Adviser John Bolton, in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation”, did not deny this possibility. As some wag noted: “An accomplished intelligence operative sits down with a New York real estate scamster. What could possibly go wrong?”

Foreign policy as conducted by the Trump Administration resembles the results when you allow your six-year-old to help prepare brownies. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in North Korea attempting to salvage a diplomatic deal after Kim played Trump for a sucker. In Moscow, six GOP Senators and a Republican Congresswoman are meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. All these awkward diplomatic efforts come at the same time Trump is upending the international trade regime that the United States has led since the end of World War II. After withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and demanding that Mexico and Canada renegotiate NAFTA, he has managed to bring us to the brink of a multi-front trade war by imposing tariffs on Canada, China, and the European Union.

While it may be convenient to believe that the Trump Administration’s foreign policy is the result of impulsive, ill considered decisions by an inept President, the conspiracy theorists among us see it as furthering the goal of Vladimir Putin to weaken the Western Alliance.

After all, this narrative states, isn’t that the reason the Russians worked so hard to get Donald Trump elected?