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Decoding Trump

President Trump is using American power in ways none of his modern predecessors have done, and the consequences are being felt around the world. Old certainties are crumbling, enemies are suddenly friends and longtime allies worry deeply about the state of U.S. democracy.

My colleague Peter Baker brings decades of experience to assessing the impact of the second Trump presidency. He has covered the past six presidencies, going all the way back to Bill Clinton. He also spent four years in Moscow, chronicling the rise of Vladimir Putin. Here are his answers to your questions, which have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Do you think that covering Trump extensively is actually playing into his hands, as it gives him the attention he craves? — Peter Schwans, Germany

He keeps us busy, no question about it. In Washington, it’s called flooding the zone. There’s a natural inclination to cover actions more than words because they have real-life impact, and words may only be bluster.

But a president’s words carry great power, and can be revealing of attitude and can lead to actions. We try to focus on comments that are indicative of what he thinks and where he may be taking the country. I don’t think ignoring him is the best way to handle it.

Over your career reporting on presidents, have you noticed a change in the personalities you’ve dealt with? From an outside perspective, there’s a sense of U.S. politics deteriorating. — Ellie O’Donnell, Ireland

The personalities have changed in part because the incentive structure has changed. When I started covering the White House in 1996, it was a pretty combative and divisive time, too. But there was still a built-in incentive to work across the aisle to get things done.

Today, that has changed. Because of widespread gerrymandering of congressional districts, the fragmentation of traditional media, the proliferation of social media and deepening polarization, elected officials no longer see much political reward in reaching out to the middle.

In fact, it’s the opposite. They risk backlash if they are seen as bipartisan. The only way most members of Congress can lose is if they anger their own political base. So that discourages cooperation, and the system now attracts more firebrands than conciliators.

What makes Trump’s foreign policies different from his predecessors? Is it just a bunch of provocations, or is there a long-term plan? — Udo Verda, Germany

There’s a tendency in journalism to look for the hidden strategy behind a president’s actions because we assume there must be one. With Trump, though, it’s often as much about his own gut instinct as any overarching strategic thinking.

His gut tells him that the old international order, created by the United States after World War II, is somehow tilted against the United States, and that previous presidents of both parties have let other countries — allies and adversaries alike — take advantage of America.

For Trump, that’s a core conviction that goes back decades. He does not value traditional alliances, and he admires autocrats because “strength,” or the appearance of it, is all-important to him. While it’s probably too simple to call his view isolationist, because he has exhibited some fairly imperialistic ideas (floating takeovers of Greenland or the Panama Canal), his slogan “America First” does capture his attitude pretty well.

America has always championed itself as a beacon of democracy and freedom. What do you observe about Trump’s role in upholding these values, domestically and internationally? — Sylvia Tan, Malaysia

President Trump does not subscribe to the traditional views of democracy and freedom held by most modern presidents of both parties. He tried to overturn a free and fair election that he lost. While out of power he called for “termination” of the Constitution to return him to power. He regularly teases the idea that he would unconstitutionally try to stay in office beyond a second term.

Since taking office again, he has sought to stifle the free press, and openly used his power to target political opponents. Nor has he shown any interest in promoting democracy or human rights around the world. To the contrary, he has embraced the likes of Putin, Xi, M.B.S. and Sisi (“my favorite dictator”) and said he would not lecture other countries about their internal policies (Venezuela and Brazil seem to be exceptions). The question is whether other countries see all this and are encouraged to retreat from democracy themselves.

Football: Ashleigh Plumptre, who left the Women’s Super League of England for Saudi Arabia’s Premier League, acknowledged that her move had “deeply hurt” people.

Tennis: Emma Raducanu retired from the Wuhan Open amid extreme heat.

Golf: Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy’s close friend, earns his moment in the sun.

Some people appear to be rallying behind a cause that would have been unthinkable a decade ago — they want to “bring back bullying.” The online push seems to reflect a general turn away from sensitivity and toward an argument that some amount of bullying can function as helpful adversity that toughens people up.

The discourse — much of it deliberately provocative — has alarmed some mental health professionals, who say bullying should not be laughed off or recast as a character-building exercise. News reports of teenagers’ suicides after intense bullying are published with regularity. Read more.

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

What they’re eating in … Brussels

Belgium is famous for its chocolate. But a new trend is disrupting the industry: Dubai chocolate, the TikTok-famous candy bars filled with crunchy, shredded phyllo, known as kadayif pastry, and pistachios.

Chocolate makers in Brussels, the world’s chocolate capital, have approached the trend with a mix of enthusiasm and befuddlement. Antoine Corné, a fifth-generation chocolate maker in the city’s old town, doesn’t make Dubai chocolate. But he has fielded so many requests for it that he has recently debuted his own alternative: the Annie, which has a soft and smooth pistachio center wrapped in a 65 percent cacao shell.

In nearby Ghent, the high-end chocolatier Stijn Vandenbouhede has created a tiny, painted artisan version (his is salted and contains tahini). “I think it’s going to be a new classic flavor,” he told me. One side effect? Prices for certain pistachios have jumped, including those Corné has long used. — Jeanna Smialek, Brussels bureau chief

Rest: Are you a skilled sleeper or a subpar snoozer? Take our quiz to find out.

Read: “Perfection” captures millennials’ desire for a refined lifestyle, and pokes fun at it.

Wear: Brown is the color of the moment. Our fashion critic has tips for styling it.

Travel: The vast Burren region in Ireland is a place to wander, physically and mentally.

These Adana meatballs, named after a city in southern Turkey, are a take on classic kebabs, in which the ground meat mixture is usually skewered and grilled. You can serve them with garlicky yogurt and herb salad alongside warm pita bread, or with fluffy rice.