A five-point plan for tackling a tinpot
Trump is no ordinary President. Europe shouldn’t treat him like one\
Brian Klaas
Looking for friends: Donald Trump attends a panel discussion during the G20 summit
© UKAS MICHAEL/POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Europe has a severe Donald Trump problem. This became plain when he arrived at July’s G20 summit in Hamburg like a bully in a china shop, ready to shatter the western order. He rumbled around, but this time the bull strengthened rather than shattered China. For the nation that leads the free world is now itself led by a man who disdains the free world’s values. That leaves China and Russia to pick up the fragments—and Europe trying to make sense of a dark new reality. And that’s before it begins to contemplate the potentially devastating nuclear brinkmanship the President is indulging in with North Korea.
It is no secret that Trump has already done more to alienate Europe than Vladimir Putin’s boldest fantasy would allow. Confidence in the leadership of the US is down by 75 per cent in Germany, 70 per cent in France and 57 per cent in the UK.