I’m in New York this week, my first visit to America since President Donald Trump took office. The weather has been sunny; the mood among the business leaders and financiers I’ve spoken to less so. In private, at least, there seems to be growing concern about where America is heading under Mr Trump. It’s a far cry from my last trip just after the election, when Wall Street types were cheering the prospect of deregulation and tax cuts. Now the bullishness that Mr Trump would take a much-needed scythe to onerous regulation and cut taxes is tempered by worry, especially about the president’s erratic protectionism and his bullying of allies. It is dawning on some of the denizens of Wall Street that the revolutionaries in the White House may do serious damage. 

Our cover this week considers the consequences of Mr Trump’s agenda through the lens of America’s bullied allies. For decades Canada, Europe and parts of Asia have trusted America’s “superpower stack”—defence treaties, trade deals, nuclear weapons, the dollar banking system—because it is mutually beneficial. Mr Trump sees it as a liability, a bad deal. In his view America has been ripped off by its allies and by the global trading system. He wants to change things, radically and quickly. This shift is so extreme and unfamiliar that it is tempting to deny it is happening. However, denial is not a plan. Flattery and concessions are not working, either. For America’s allies, there is no point whingeing: they need to toughen up and get to work.