A recent article in the Financial Times states that leaders of European countries called an
assembly to ‘“send a signal of what the EU expects” from Mr.
Trump’. That’s why the wording of the heading of this piece expresses doubt as
to the judgement and wisdom of the current leaders of the EU. I never doubted
the intelligence of European leaders, only their judgement and ability to make wise
decisions, and I believe this decision to scold Donald Trump is an example of a
losing-liberal gasp for relevance in a world of rapid change that’s leaving
them behind.
Following the
international disaster of the last eight years of Barack Obama, these European fools
are going to pretend to lecture Donald Trump? The proper response from Europe to
Mr. Trump’s election should be “Congratulations Mr. Trump on your victory, and
thank God that Barack Obama will soon be gone”. But I’m not holding my breath.
But, in all fairness
to the EU, European fortunes have been under
attack lately, first with Brexit and now with the election of Donald Trump, who
is not of a mind to play traditional ball with Europe any more than he played ball
with the American political establishment. EU leaders saw what happened to
Hillary Clinton and want to try to intimidate Mr. Trump into giving them some “safe-space”. We’ll see how Trump responds.
Britain, France and
Hungary, by the way, declined to meet with their European compatriots, so we’ll
have to wait and see how these three decliners impact the unity of the other
countries.
As regards the Financial Times quote of ‘“what the EU
expects” from Mr. Trump’, I think they very much want Mr. Trump to agree that the
United States will continue to supply the military umbrella that protects
Europe, and to keep picking up the tab for EU’s defense. But the politics of
the western world has changed in the last several months, and it may continue
to change even further as Mr. Trump takes office and shows the world that
things will not remain as they have been the last 50 years. And along with this
political change has come a change in attitude and financial viability. Europe
must begin to foot the bill for their military protection because the United
States is no longer willing or able to do so. We want strong and friendly
relations with Europe, but the days of playing Santa Clause are over.
The judgement of
European leaders has long been in doubt with their weak armies and their
willingly allowing masses of Muslim immigrants and refugees to settle within
their borders, even while Muslim extremists are declaring that they will kill
all non-Muslims and while we have witnessed massive and murderous terrorist
attacks on the European population by Muslims residing in Europe. One hopes
they are wise enough to work with Mr. Trump to assure continued peace and prosperity
between all our nations.
