Donald Trump has turned the US into an inept, unreliable ally – and all for the hope of electoral gain

Editorial: Ask the South Koreans, the European Nato members threatened with US withdrawal, Canada and Mexico – who can rely on Trump’s America to stick with them, to pay any price, to bear any burden?

While the now notorious telephone call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president about Joe Biden and his son has led to an attempt at impeachment, the phone conversation the US president had with Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey may prove the more momentous for the US, and indeed the world.

In what appears to have been an “unforced error” of geopolitical proportions President Trump gave the green light to Turkey’s invasion – there is no better word for it – of northern Syria.

In doing so, and without much in the way of preparation or consultation with senior figures in the US military or the State Department, let alone allies, Mr Trump has simultaneously: permitted Turkey to annex a large swathe of the territory of a neighbouring sovereign state; betrayed the trust of brave Kurdish allies now at the mercy of a hostile Turkish regime; and virtually guaranteed the release of former Isis fighters and terrorists currently under Kurdish supervision.