A new verb was circulating at the NATO summit that Joe Biden hosted in early July, in the—unbeknownst to him—last days of his presidential campaign. With Donald Trump looking more likely to wrest back the White House in November, European diplomats and their advisors boasted of how they planned to “Trump-proof” the international order, starting with aid to the Ukrainian war effort. On one hand, European leaders were recognizing the immovable democratic reality that the present-day Republican Party represents: none failed to swear loyalty to the Trumpian proposition that Europe ought to pay more for its defense. On the other hand, they continued to cast Trumpism as a “threat to democracy,” albeit one that could be neutralized with the help of a few political tricks. They proposed a $100-billion five-year funding plan for the Ukrainian war effort, shifted authority over the arms-contributing nations from the U.S. to NATO itself, and declared Ukraine’s path to NATO membership “irreversible.”

Even in the best of circumstances, “Trump-proofing” would appear to be a counterproductive strategy. Leaders do not get to lay out the policies of their elected successors. Were NATO to reconfigure itself in such a way as to stymie the verdicts of American democracy, it would alienate many more Americans from the alliance than President Trump has thus far managed