Europe sells its soul to Trump

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Your guide to what the second period of Trump means to Washington, business and the world

“Humor”, “economic surrender” and the speech that “appears to be stolen from The entertainment industry for adults“.

This is just a small selection of Europeans’ reactions to how their leaders assemble Donald Trump – first to accept the US President’s request that NATO countries spend 5 percent of national income on defense, then by supporting a commercial “deal” that leaves the European Union much worse than before.

When Trump returned to the White House, European leaders looked unbalanced by how to deal with him. Now, their strategic choice is clear. It is accommodation instead of confrontation, accompanied by the rhetoric of temptation that praises the hustle and bustle of Trump’s ingenuity and the manufacture of deals. The question is whether the loss in self -esteem deserves it. He spoke to decision -makers, and abstinence is that “no one is naive here.” Instead, the call is pragmatism.

Three specific claims can be distinguished. First, since the conversation is cheap, why don’t you get Trump? Second, what has been achieved is better than alternatives (the knee defending Ukraine and an explicit commercial war). With luck, European Union companies may benefit from the high -end definitions that have been placed on a lot of non -European trade. And thirdly, politics will recognize Under sound Many European pledges towards Trump are only to show. Dimensive pledges of defensive spending by 5 percent, huge investment and buying periods in the United States are not realistic or aimed at keeping it, but Trump’s stupid bought it, we have done our good.

This position is unpleasant. The initial response will be the fight. The biggest problem is that it fails to test pragmatism. Real pragmatism is to reduce exposure to the United States of hostility. What pragmatist defenders call is in opportunism – and it is not only illegal but also causes real damage, not the least of which is Europe’s policy.

As Trump is well understood, the speech is not actually cheap. Political talk puts expectations and forms of strength. Mark Retty and Orrsola von der Lin with Trump matters, because it means that foreign leaders now give him freely what he actually imposed at home: acceptance that achieving anything requires not to speak the truth. European leaders also supported Trump’s concept of politics as a TV performance. As a result, anger, bullying and passion attacks are normalized to subjugate rituals on the international stage.

Moreover, Europe sacrificed the ability to summon its violations of international treaties-such as the requirements of the World Trade Organization for the most effective nation’s principle. It has also fallen with the idea that the results are achieved through personal bargaining between great men (and sometimes women), rather than the strenuous work of democratic deliberations and unanimity building.

But note what are these options that cost Europe. All the political capital that could have been filled to lead a coalition of countries in defense of the trade -based trade and a concerted opposition to Trump. Not only that, the betrayal of its American friends, who considered Europe standing in front of Trump while they were struggling to do this themselves.

More importantly, Europe risks its political spirit. She put herself in a position in which leaders cannot say publicly what they really are trying to do. This is a recipe for lack of confidence and poison for democracy – and European liberal democracy in particular. How can voters support policies whose true nature cannot be accepted (such as promises until Trump is unrealistic)? If the European Union accepts hypocrisy, what the economist Richard Baldwin describes as a “principle of grievance” of globalization, how can it affect the anti -Europe forces that flourish on these opinions at home?

This danger, then, is that the European subordinates in the European Trump who wins the need for extensive accountability in front of “confidence in the leader” Trump focuses on making deals, and this inherent replacement requires. By leaving Trump’s will defeated reality, the practical defense supposed to have European leaders for their collective interests is in fact the acceleration of the dismantling of politics throughout the continent.

Another possible course. In February, Ukraine President Volodimir Zelinsky himself held himself when he benefited from Trump at the Oval Office – not worse, to judge his visit to return last week. If other European leaders need to take a signal from the White House, it will be the correct one to follow.

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