There is a clear Trump doctrine. Those who can’t see it won't have a say in reshaping the world | Nesrine Malik

The sooner the US's former friends realise the old global order is over, the sooner they can organise to regain power and agency - the only language Trump understands

A resonant phrase during Donald Trump's first administration was the advice to take him seriously, but not literally". It was a singularly detrimental expression, widely quoted by politicians and the media. Its adoption fit with the position many felt most comfortable taking: Trump was bad, but he wasn't smart. He wasn't intentional. He wasn't calculated and deliberate. He sounded off, but rarely followed up with action. He was in essence a misfiring weapon that could do serious damage, but mostly by accident.

The residue of that approach still persists, even in analysis that describes Trump's first executive orders as a campaign of shock and awe", as if it were just a matter of signalling rather than executing. Or that his plan for Gaza is to be taken - you guessed it - seriously, not literally. When that was suggested to Democratic senator Andy Kim, he lost it. I understand people are bending over backwards to try to mitigate some of the fallout from these statements that are made," he told Politico. But Trump is the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world ... if I can't take the words of the president of the United States to actually mean something, rather than needing some type of oracle to be able to explain, I just don't know what to think about when it comes to our national security."

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist