Most of the foreign policy team around Trump, so far as I can tell, imagines itself doing what realist Republican presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon have done in the past — matching means and ends, accepting lesser evils to avoid greater ones, and delivering necessary shock therapy for a system of alliances that needs it.

Asian nations watching the episode can draw lessons, including how the US is focused on business and not ideology. Read more at straitstimes.com.