A slew of Trump aides have been indicted, have pleaded guilty, or are expected to be charged with crimes. Beyond perhaps Secretary of Defense James Mattis (so far) and former deputy national-security adviser Dina Powell, it’s hard to think of a Trump administration staffer who has come out looking better for the experience.

Yet the dilemma was not just one for Americans—foreign leaders had a similar choice to make. Simply ignoring the United States was not really an option, especially for longstanding American allies, but some leaders opted to keep Trump at something like arm’s reach. Britain’s Theresa May has sharply reprimanded the president for comments about terrorism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has kept a businesslike, Teutonic aloofness, and been met with a similar coolness from Trump.

Some of their peers took a different approach. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in many ways an anti-Trump—young, liberal, performatively woke—but he made nice with Trump and yukked it up with him during their meetings. Japan’s Shinzo Abe also cultivated Trump, hitting the links with him. France’s Emmanuel Macron, though like Trudeau ill-matched ideologically to Trump, went the farthest, and became his fastest friend on the international stage. He treated Trump to a military parade in Paris—inspiring the American president to order his own back home—and became the guest of honor at Trump’s first State Dinner. Trudeau, Abe, and Macron made a bet: Because Trump wasn’t really an ideologue, personal relationships would make all the difference, and the political disagreements would melt away.

But all three have seen that bet go south. Abe was shut out of Trump’s summit with North Korea, to the consternation of Japan, though he tried to mitigate that exclusion with a visit to Washington last week. Macron and Trudeau both saw their countries hit with tariffs by the U.S. At the G7, they hoped to talk Trump out of that, but as it turned out, they had no better luck than Merkel or May. Trump left the summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, early. Then, after seeing statements from Trudeau that were critical of the tariffs, he threw a fit and decided not to sign on to the group statement, to which he’d previously assented. He then unspooled a series of tweets harshly assailing both Canada and Trudeau himself.

Macron, Trudeau, and Abe were right that Trump is not an ideologue, at least in the traditional sense, though trade is one of the few areas where he seems to have a deep-seated and immovable conviction. It is also true that Trump has shown himself to be a pushover who almost always folds. But they have now learned the lesson that so many Trump associates, from Roy Cohn to Michael Cohen to Paul Manafort to Jeff Sessions, have already learned: Loyalty is a one-way street for Trump. He demands it absolutely, but offers nothing in return.