Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen. So it is a shocking experience to them that... — Henry Kissinger

Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen. So it is a shocking experience to them that he came in to office.

Author: Henry Kissinger

Insight: Most of us think of politics as predictable—you campaign, you build coalitions, you follow certain unwritten rules. What Kissinger was really describing is the disorientation of watching those rules get upended in real time, especially from abroad. Foreign leaders spend careers understanding how American power typically operates. Then suddenly the playbook changes completely. The interesting part isn't just that Trump was unconventional. It's that predictability itself had become part of how countries managed relationships with the US. When that disappears, everyone has to recalibrate. It's like working with a colleague for years, understanding their patterns, their limits, their negotiating style—then they completely change how they operate. You lose your footing, at least temporarily. This actually points to something we see across institutions now: the shock of disruption itself can matter as much as what's being disrupted. Whether that shock is ultimately good or destabilizing often depends on where you're standing. But Kissinger's observation captures something real—the moment when established patterns stop working and nobody quite knows what comes next. That uncertainty is its own kind of power.