Should the United States prioritize loyalty-based alliances over traditional treaty partnerships?

Context

The debate over loyalty-based versus treaty-based alliances reflects a fundamental tension in U.S. foreign policy: whether America should prioritize personal relationships with individual leaders and nations, or maintain formal institutional commitments like NATO and multilateral agreements. Loyalty-based approaches emphasize flexibility and bilateral deals tailored to specific interests, while treaty partnerships provide predictable, rules-based frameworks that have underpinned post-WWII international stability. This question has gained urgency as recent U.S. administrations have questioned traditional alliances while pursuing transactional relationships, raising concerns among allies about American reliability.