Europe’s Opportunity, America’s Fall

Most commentators dubbed Donald Trump’s gracious show of hospitality to Volodymyr Zelenskyy a disaster. It might turn out to be so, of course, but it was also a huge opportunity, especially if nations that recognize the change in the world order are smart and brave enough to seize it.

Make no mistake. The meeting was a set-up from the start. This was never to be a negotiation, but rather a staged capitulation gained with a bludgeon. From the day Trump proposed his one-sided metals deal, the goal was to exploit—and demean—what appeared to him to be a weak and desperate Zelenskyy, all to show his ability to impose his will on recalcitrant nations, much as Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers to show he was going to impose his will on recalcitrant unions.

In a larger sense, it was a demonstration of Trump’s world view, that the powerful should be dictating to the weak, and that he personally was the instrument of America’s might, to be employed where and when he pleased. That he has openly aligned with Russia is all the evidence anyone needs that what he has in mind is a new age of imperialism. (Canada, Greenland, and Gaza buttress that conclusion as well.)

That he chose Russia rather than China with whom to carve up the world is both ironic and revealing. Ironic in that he is collaborating with a Russia that is historically weak, its military decimated and its economy in a shambles. How humiliating it must have been for Vladimir Putin, a racist down to his toenails, to plead with Kim Jung Un for troops.

It is revealing in that it demonstrates not America’s strength but rather its weakness. Historically it is rare to see a partnership between the world’s two most powerful nations. It is, rather, almost always a competition. The more traditional arrangement is for number two and number three to align against number one, as Russia and China did against the United States in the first decades of the Cold War.

With his Oval Office stunt, Trump made the United States weaker still, exacerbating a trend that he began literally the day he took office. His tariffs have the Wall Street Journal in a tizzy, his deportation-for-all initiative promises to raise both food and home prices, mass firings are hardly likely to goose demand, and the uncertainty surrounding both his and Elon Musk’s erratic, often unhinged, behavior have businesses rethinking new initiatives. And the country will be even much weaker if there is a CDC-less, Medicaid-denuded pandemic or a natural disaster with no FEMA to step in.

But the biggest impact can be the rebirth of an emboldened Europe.

In Germany, the new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, stated unequivocally, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” and warned that NATO nations might have to provide their own security. In the UK, new prime minister, Keir Starmer, pledged “boots on the ground” to support a peace deal and “stop Putin from coming back for more.”

But it is France’s Emmanuel Macron who, as he has done so often during his term in office, again pushed for both a robust, united Europe and aggressive opposition to Russian expansionism.

In the wake of Trump’s confrontation with Zelenskyy, each of these three, as well as other European leaders, including the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who proclaimed that “The free world needs a new leader,” and, “It is up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” all pledged active, vibrant support of Ukraine to save that nation from Putin’s clutches…and Trump’s.

Here’s their chance to do it.

If Europe needs any inspiration, they should have gotten it from that meeting. Instead of the fealty and acquiescence Trump was expecting, he faced a Zelenskyy who, after years of standing up to Putin, was unwilling to join American Republicans and roll over for Trump.

Macron, in particular, has hinted more than once that, if the situation in Ukraine turned sufficiently dire, he would consider committing French troops. If he can get Germany and perhaps the UK and some other European nations to join him, that is precisely what he should do now. Rather than precipitate World War III, as Trump has warned, it might well prevent it. Putin will never be able to match the renewed battlefield strength of an even partially united Europe and North Korea will not be able to save him.

In return, Zelenskyy could grant the mineral rights Trump sought by intimidation to the nations that supported him, as well as granting Ukraine’s allies favorable grain deals.

Putin will then be forced to either watch his military be further, almost fatally, degraded or undertake genuine peace talks…unless he can get significant material support from another ally.

And that puts Trump right into the corner in which he belongs.

If Trump restricts himself to angry ALL-CAPS tweets, he shows himself up to be the empty blowhard he is and loses not only Europe’s support, but Putin’s as well. His only other choice would be to actively support Russia, either through sales of weapons or, incredibly, American troops, a move that would certainly be wildly unpopular, even in a country that has all but abdicated its moral authority.

And that puts his party of cowards and hypocrites into the corner in which they belong.

Up until now, for fear of losing their cushy jobs, Republicans have lacked the courage to oppose Trump. If they continue on that course, the nation, alas, may be irretrievably lost. But if they suddenly realize they are more likely to lose their jobs by supporting Trump than by opposing him, the United States may yet be saved.

So the question becomes whether, if Trump attempts to become Russia’s active partner in a genocidal war, Republicans in Congress and on the bench will still be so lacking in courage, to say nothing of fundamental decency, as to sit by and let him do it?

We, the people, deserve to know the answer. Europe can help give it to us.