We rolled our eyes last summer when foreign policy elites declared the end of American global leadership and a new “isolationism” after President Trump and the U.S. announced withdrawal from the Paris climate accords. Looking back on that freakout is still good for a laugh.

Today, as the leaders on the Korean Peninsula call for a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump, as Trump has unified Sunni nations in a counterterrorism effort, as he begins work with Ukraine and the Baltic nations to counter Russia’s aggression, and as he fosters a bond with France’s Emmanuel Macron, it’s impossible with a straight face to call Trump an isolationist or say America has retreated from the world.

It’s obviously silly to demand a Nobel Prize now, just as it’s too early to know if Trump’s actions in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe will work out well. But whatever you think of these moves, they’re not retreat.

“This will be the day that the United States resigned as the leader of the free world,” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria declared last year after the exit from Paris.

Former President Barack Obama’s U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, blasted Trump for “abdication of America's global leadership.”

John Kerry, Obama’s former secretary of state, cried “This is an unprecedented forfeiture of American leadership.”

The isolationist charge has a gossamer-thin plausibility to it because of Trump’s attacks on free trade, his dislike of immigration, and his much less enthusiastic opinion of going to war to spread democracy than was displayed by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, and Fareed Zakaria.

Mostly, though, the complaints about Trump surrendering leadership really meant only that the complainers didn’t like the direction in which he was leading.

The Paris accords were not in America’s interest. They didn’t curb greenhouse gases, but could be used to curb America’s economic competitiveness.

Withdrawing from the deal was prudent and rational. There is room for disagreement, but disagreeing with one treaty is not the same as wanting nothing to do with the rest of the world.

Recent weeks should remind everyone how much Trump is involved with the rest of the world. Korea’s leaders credit him for thawing tensions there. Is the sunshine on that peninsula actually good news? Can Trump make denuclearization more likely? Those are open questions, but it’s not debatable that Trump has been engaged, and that America has been leading. Some churls say the real work is being done by China, but why is Beijing now doing that work?

The same is true among Arab nations and in Europe. Even on trade protectionism, Trump is showing more flexibility than his critics let on. He delayed steel and aluminum tariffs for a month with the express intent of seeking deals with trading partners. Ideally, he will use this month to offer lower tariffs in exchange for lower subsidies and protectionism by partner nations.

In any event, Trump’s foreign policy record is one of America continuing its role as global leader — even if we’re leading in a direction that displeases John Kerry.