The slow-motion implosion of the White House has, in an odd way, facilitated Donald Trump’s goal of reorienting America inward. A progression of presidential scandals, punctuated by the occasional assault on democratic institutions, have replaced the regular course of civic life in the United States, monopolizing the national consciousness. While diplomatic fires burn in North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Venezuela, China, and Europe, the American political and media class can hardly look away from the inferno in its own backyard. Foreign-policy analyst Ian Bremmer has warned that the world, absent U.S. hegemony, is slipping into a “geopolitical recession.”

America’s shrinking profile is, in part, by design. Trump, who has frequently raged at foreign leaders and international institutions for exploiting American largesse, began with a Twitter bender threatening to tear up the nuclear accord with Iran (“brutal and corrupt”), cut aid to the Palestinian Authority, (“why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”) annihilate North Korea with nuclear weapons (“my button works!”), and pull financial support from Pakistan (“they have given us nothing but lies & deceit”). A day after criticizing Islamabad, Pakistan’s central bank announced that it would be replacing the dollar with the yuan, putting its faith in China going forward. On Thursday, the Trump administration doubled down, announcing a freeze on nearly all security aid to Pakistan, worth some $255 million.

The suspension in State Department funds follows similar moves by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who cautioned last month that the U.S. would be “taking names” of supposed allies who failed to support Trump’s foreign policy. When the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to censure the U.S. for its decision to relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, she announced the U.S. would slash its budget obligations to the U.N. by more than $285 million. “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked,” read Haley’s released statement. “This historic reduction in spending—in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable U.N.—is a big step in the right direction.”

Some analysts perceive an internal strategy at work. Slashing foreign aid, as much as it upsets the liberal establishment, is generally supported by public polling. While it accounts for only about 1 percent of annual spending, slimming the $50 billion budget is an easy win for an administration in need of concrete victories. To international observers, however, the administration’s moves are more madness than method. “Recent statements and articulation by the American leadership were completely incomprehensible,” Pakistani officials said on Tuesday, adding that Trump “struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations.” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said that Palestinians, who received $260 million of bilateral aid from the U.S. in 2016, would “not be blackmailed” and that Trump had “sabotaged our search for peace, freedom, and justice.”

This eruption of frustration follows a year that has seen global leaders attempt to decipher the Trump Doctrine—if such a thing can be said to exist—with a mix of frustration, befuddlement, and, in the case of new allies like Saudi Arabia, satisfaction. There have been moments of abject surreality, such as when Trump was photographed clutching a celestially glowing orb in Riyadh; or awkwardly grasping Vladimir Putin’s underarm in Hamburg; or clutching British Prime Minister Theresa May’s hand in Washington, sending body-language experts into exquisite overdrive. But the overarching mood of the international community is one of fear. In private, reports Susan B. Glasser for Politico, foreign governments have been alarmed by Trump’s disregard for accepted dictums, traditions, and relationships: