I have to consider why the VP attended this conference and gave such a sycophantic address. As an elected official he does not serve at the pleasure of POTUS, so his speech at the conference was his own choice. He may just have a desire to stay in the public eye. Perhaps, he is confirming his loyalty to POTUS to carry the republican base in 2024 or even in 2020.
I have always been leery of impeachment because it would make Pence POTUS. I thought he was a far more competent politician than the current occupant but one whose agenda was even more threatening than that of his superior. Beyond his bible thumping domestic policy he has apparently abandoned what had been a cornerstone of America's foreign policy, the Atlantic alliance. I am more convinced than ever that investigations which embarrass and undermine the authority of this administration, rather than giving Pence a step up. is the way forward.
148
Sadly those in the White House who need a reality check on how this administration is regarded in the world I suspect aren't readers of the New York Times. In just two years we have managed to put at risk the alliances that have brought a relative period of stability in the world. The broken trust is not likely to ever be rebuilt, and that makes the world a much more dangerous place for us all.
49
Germany would be fools to put all their eggs in one basket. Besides Putin is proud of Trump doing his job.
It is time for Congress to do its job and impeach.
5
Republican just let this traveling circus continue.
3
I hope and pray that our friends in Europe understand that donald trump in no way represents anywhere near a majority of Americans. Most of us - likely at least 2/3 - are embarrassed by this buffoon and will do whatever is possible to make sure he is lame duck in under 1 year - assuming he is not impeached before that.
To our European and other friends around the world, and even to those who are not currently our "friends" but with who we have made serious agreements that trump has trashed (Iran, all 194 other nations who signed the Paris accords): I hope you know that most of us Americans are far more angry and incredulous that this moron is called "president" of anything but his own criminal family and cabal.
Trump does not represent more than a few Americans - you will see what I mean in early November, 2020. Stay with us - Americans are with you.
11
The Americans still really have no idea how much damage the Trump administration has done to who they are as a country. At this point, they are getting laughed at. They are getting ignored. For heaven's sake, Russia is the enemy of the United States, and there are American allies openly saying that they would rather ally with Russia than the US!
On the other hand, the US regularly throws over their allies for China and Russia, so there's that. I guess turnabout is fair play.
But seriously, this doesn't end with the Trump administration. This is going to be a generational conflict. This is really, really serious. People don't forget this sort of thing. China and Russia are building bridges right now that might not be torn down for decades, if ever. This is the type of administrative ruin that could lead to the permanent decline of the Republic.
Also, can the Trump administration stop with all the anti-socialism stuff? Canada is socialist. Trump is saying socialism, and most people are hearing communism and Marxism, but socialism is universal health care and a lot of social services. We're decently socialist, and a democracy. When Trump speaks out against socialism, what most of us hear is that he doesn't like liberalism. He likes conservatives, and that means the PPC and CPC. He needs to butt out.
This is just getting bad. Seriously bad. Anybody else remember what the world was like in 1914?
4
I don't think the world needs to do a song and dance around the idiot in the white house. Acknowledge the situation and move on best without him, for 2 more years hopefully. May be the next president will be able to roll back the damage this administration has done to our country and world's democratic order.
5
Thankfully, I think most of our mature EU allies know this is a Trump (and perhaps a GOP) problem and not that of the US itself. 70 years of leadership (and no, not perfect leadership by any means) will not be forgotten because of the shortsightedness of one orange idiot.
4
Pence has shown himself to the ultimate brown noser...just wondering if he thinks that this will qualify him for nomination after Trump is gone.
Pathetic.
4
Pence, Ivanka, Kushner: a hat-trick for U.S. embarrassment abroad.
9
We remain embarrassed by the "Useful Idiot" who represents our great nation on the world stage. It is to Angela's credit that she stands her ground against this threat to our common interests. The "Idiot" is a blip on the screen of history even though it feels like a terminal disease. What shame he's brought upon us all, never to be forgiven by history's memory.
6
Europe can turn up its nose all she likes. Were it not for the good old USA, the Russian Bear would have long annexed her. You are welcome Europe; America guarantees your freedoms to look down upon us and cast specious aspersions at our ways. You would be nothing without us; global warming is not your greatest threat silly fools. American dominance ending is.
4
Pence is an obsequious butt kisser without ideas or direction without Trump. A know nothing.
11
Has anyone stopped to calculate what the peace dividend to the USA is going to be when Europe begins not only to pay for its own defense but also the cost of maintaining two or three Carrier battle groups around the world, we currently support 11 carrier groups. Lets give the Korean peninsula obligation to Germany. France can maintain bases in bases in Japan. The US is now an oil export country so let the EU build and maintain three or four carrier battle groups to support the patrol coverage needed the middle east waters and keep the oil flowing to Europe and China. Let's run a tape on all the monies and programs we support in Africa and wars in North Africa. Let the EU divide that up how they like, Europe screwed up most of Africa anyhow.
There is very little concern about Europe being aggressive with these new forces, the US could then reduce our defense spending to 2% of our GDP (well we will try and do 2% hehehe, will make us more European).
5
I have, in the distant past, occasionally voted for a Republican. Recently, no. In the future? Never. They could run a feline hairball for office, hang a D after it’s name, and I’ll vote for it.
7
The Vice Presidents disingenuousness, lack of awareness, and groveling sycophancy is as transparent as it is pathetic. He reveals himself a caricature. A "thick" caricature who mocks himself on the world stage.
13
The Europeans are having confirmed what they have long believed: Many if not most American's are dim witted and short sighted.
Pence and his keeper allow the Euro's to continue to believe that the Americans are a barley civilized society of over eating, under thinking clods.
9
All you need to know about Trump and Pence-like antics has already been recorded in the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II, emperor of Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II tore apart Germany and antagonized allies and Europe leading up to WWI and Germany's humiliating loss mostly due to this one deranged man. Trump and his henchman/ nobody Pence, mimic this awful history to a tee.
1
Bravo Angela Merkel! We would be better served in the US with you as our president, instead we have a bumbling idiot, and a religious fanatic as VP. Tell me again why Ivanka and Jared need to be at these important international events, oh yes because now the White House is a family affair
10
Yea, but Trump is so popular with his base. Isn't this a good thing? Just kidding. Our worst minds hold the rudder - how dangerous. An errant clown ruins the world. 2020 can't come soon enough. May we make it to the next election in one piece - all of us. Meanwhile, the true emergency lies on our Southern Border. Incomprehensible, psychotic stupidity. Thank you, Roger for a much needed look at the global stage in this precarious moment.
6
Well Pence previously criticized them for not supporting Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran Deal. Trump prefers to keep is Israeli and Arab friend happy completely disregarding the facts and intelligence of our actual allies. Maybe if he has some Israelis's and Arabs in the audience he would have had a clap or two. 32 million Trump friends Trump 400 million allies in the new Trump reality. I hope the Europeans know 60% of Americans side with them over the effervescent and ephemeral policies of the Trump.
3
If there was ever a reason to keep religion out of politics, just refer to Pence.
10
Americans should be ashamed by the spectacle of Pence, fawning and trying to defend Trump, when European leaders know Trump is a liar and have no respect.
Europe cannot wait for another 2 years to take some self-protective steps. The EU would do well to think about closer ties with China as the Brexit mess heads to some kind of ending. Considering that Trump tariffs will probably continue and worsen for the EU, now is the time to make some moves.
BMW should cut production back drastically at their facility in South Carolina if Trump continues his hate tactics against
EU. He seems to be driven to destroy EU economically and politically but will understand job losses from his base.
4
At least this time the feckless Ivanka was only in the audience and not sharing a podium with the incomparable Angela Merkel and other extraordinary women, as in April 2017. I cringe every time I think of her assuming she was entitled to her place in such august female company. Her standing ovation and peck on the cheek of the Mike Pence was completely inappropriate - she is clueless!
12
Trump is abhorrent. But Pence is nauseating. The silence that greeted him is only due to the respectful diplomatic skills of its listeners. In any other venue, he would have been booed.
16
Trump is an un-curious bully. What he knew at 30 he still believes today. There has been no learning. As a retired Foreign Service Officer I regrettably judge that the era of the United States as a world leader is over. The fracturing of our relations with our allies means that this century will belong to China. Putin got a great bargain--in supporting Trump--in upending the alliances that have maintained the stability in the world for the last 70 years. Welcome to Trump's hurricane. Seek shelter and duck for cover. It's going to get nasty--nastier--than we have known in our lifetimes.
5
By the way, the dozens millions illegal immigrants flooding our shores are mostly coming from the Latin America after over the last several decades the White House helped the local tyrants and dictators in every possible way defeat the creation of more just and fair social system called the socialism.
The locals just tried to be like Sweden, Demark, Germany or France.
Was that the crime against our national security?
If it was, why we are in the NATO with such a kind of socialist countries?
Who could say that the universal health care would become our mortal enemy...?
Who knows, one day even Theodor and Franklin D. Roosevelt might be declared as the communists for breaking up the corporate monopolies or creating the Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare…
3
Trump is an ignominious author of the new world disorder. Heaven help us. Because the Republicans sure won’t.
7
well well well it is about time europe stood up for itself. there is roughly 350million folks in the european union(it will be a bit less after brexit) and it has its own interests to take care of. for too long it has allowed american administrations to rule the roosts there. the iran situation has been the event that has worried most europeans - they are so uncomfortably close to iran and what might happen if nato were to attack and iran had an atomic device to hand that would be disaster. ante semitic? i don't see how that works into the overall analysis a big red herring!
Can I just mention Joe Biden's absolutely awesome speech from the conference, though?
The Pence silence was pretty much the strongest condemnation I've seen yet of the Trump administration.
But the Joe Biden speech made me want to cry.
That's the America I saw. Please, please come back America we used to see.
6
Trump rode into town on a wave of justified anger at the way previous administrations were serving the corporate elites at the peoples' expense. Of course he was a liar and a fraud, and many of us saw right through his baloney, but he fooled enough desperate people to get where he is.
Pence is his impeachment insurance.
This country was in serious trouble before Trump, but he is accelerating the downfall. What this country needs is someone who says what Trump said (minus the wall) and who actually walks his (or her) talk. Instead we have a snake oil salesman and his ridiculous sidekick who are thrashing around the international stage like a couple of Looney Tune characters.
Hopefully we can hold on until 2020 without fatal damage, and then elect an administration and congress that will repair the damage and return some control to we the people. I hope the Europeans and the rest of our friends can
view this as a temporary aberration, and withhold any permanent decisions about us until then. If we don't get it right by then, we probably won't have another chance.
2
The cognitive dissonance of having possibly the most pious vice-president in America's history fully support the most odious (in character, admitted behavior, language and thought) president is one thing. To have that vice-president travel to a meeting of individuals who his immediate superior has belittled, cat-called and generally denigrated and expect them to applaud his words is another level of disconnection from reality.
It's not only Europe who has had enough of your president. It's the entire world, absent a few vicious dictators.
6
Fake news, actually the Eurpoean leaders applauded Pence's speech for over an hour.
@Tibby Elgato
Indeed the sounds of one hand clapping were exhilarating.
1
Good, lol. I know most of you have been brainwashed to think this as taboo.
But a US aligned with China and Russia instead of Europe would be way more powerful on the international stage.
Furthermore, Europe will continue to decline in importance over the next century. I would like to see the US presidents begin to skip the G7 meetings in favor of meetings that include Russia and China.
Trump has cemented one thing: if Putin, Kim or someone else explodes a nuclear weapon in the United States, the rest of the world will take a pass.
That's what happens when you stab your friends in the back.
4
Trump has soured international relations with the US by adopting a bullying posture. His antagonism is rooted in the fact that America has been taken advantage of by its purported allies. I cannot claim he is wrong, only that he's a complete buffoon in how he's dealt with it. Previous presidents considered smooth foreign policy more important than national pride, so even though we were being used by allies that sneered at us behind our backs, our government went along with it because putting these nations in their place wasn't worth rocking the NATO boat.
Well the cat is out of the bag now, and there's no putting it back in. It's wishful thinking that we can go back to how it was, Trump ensured that's not possible. Thanks to his "standing up" to nations taking advantage of US largesse, the USA is now in a position where reconciling on another country's terms makes us look weak. And in fact it does mean we are weak, and unable or unwilling to defend our own interests if it means standing up to foreign countries.
This antagonism with Europe cannot go on, but if our next president immediately begins licking European boots to make up for what Trump did then he will have sealed the end of American hegemony in the west, a decline that Trump set in motion.
Trump/Pence is what our most undemocratic institution, the electoral college, has wrought.
1
Do the people who put Trump in office have the slightest clue about the possibly irreparable damage he is doing to everything that made America great for the past 75 years?
Obstinate anger and unwillingness to find strength in multilateralism has made the US unloved and weaker by degrees. Can't the MAGA people see that the only entity Trump is making greater is Russia? Fox news propaganda has hoodwinked 40% of Americans.
5
If the Trump regime does not destroy the Western alliance, it won't be for lack of trying. THAT is a genuine national security emergency.
3
As an American I should be distraught at the apathetic reaction to our VP and the lecture from Merkel. However, my feelings are thankful that the Europeans are not waiting out Trump. They are rejecting him and moving. It is necessary for the moment and for the future.
9
Hopefully the next president can repair the damage done to our alliances and to our standing in the world. This administration was a disaster.
4
Dear Europe,
We have been taken hostage by the Russians and international interests not our own. Our own brothers let our enemies into our house. I would love to blame these voters, but, let's face it, our enemies are more patient than we now-now-now Americans are. Our enemies have been playing the long game since Rupert Murdoch squatted here, since Reagan worked his humiliating magic, and the wall fell. I hate to invoke the often club-like statement that we saved your bacon in WWII, but we have need of your aid now. Indeed, some of you are in a time of peril as well, with Russia's Brexit manipulations, and the rise of the nationalist right. Help us survive two more years. If we can't throw off some of our chains by then, write us off then, and save yourselves. If we can last until the next elections, if we can hold and win those next elections, we can be better partners, wiser partners, than we have been in recent years. United we stand,
Your friends, [most of] the US.
11
DeGaulle or Gaullist thinking worked in part because the French were willing and able to put military muscle and commitment behind DeGaulle's words. Does anyone seriously think that Europe is willing to defend itself to put money and men out there. I will say this to Ms. Merkel you can talk the talk but lets see you walk the walk. Lets see you put money, men, resources into defending Europe. Lets see your economy grow. Soros no Trump fan believes that the EU could end up like Soviet Union unless it starts making some significant change.
US Now spends more Defending Europe under Trump 19B than under Obama 7B. Speaking of Obama how many times did Europe promise to spend two percent of its GDP on it's own Defense. Germany is cannibalizing it's military for parts.
How many EU troops were in Syria?. You know whats an easy thing for a European politician to do ? Attack Trump, attack Pence as well even better if they are in the audience. But of course never offer up any concrete proposals . Never offer to increase your own defense budget. Never offer ways to improve your economy as it heads toward another recession. Even as you haven't recovered from the last one.
It is truly sad when Vladimir Putin is perceived to be more trustworthy than Donald Trump. What a bizarre world we live in. In our Trumpian world everything is upside down - lies are truth, debt is good, allies are enemies, enemies are good guys, and sin helps one do God’s work. Our current world emergency - fostered by Trump - defies all logic.
5
Trump could write a book on how to lose
friends and make enemies. He is a
great practioner of this art. He has few
soulmates in Poland and Hungary.
4
Merkel should have announced, considering that the United States was no longer interested in providing for the common defense of western nations, that Germany was going to develop nuclear weapons and top-of-the-line ballistic missiles. Cheers!
2
Pence should be grateful his speech wasn't booed or laughed at. He might as well get used to it unless he limits his audiences to those wearing MAGA costumes.
9
Pence is clueless. What did he expect? Who cares. We spend way too much time wondering why they do what they do and we need to spend more time working to get them tossed into prison.
The Europeans know that Trump/Pence are solely owned assets of the Russians. They trust their intelligence agencies so they know what Trump and Putin are up to.
When Trump announces a unilateral peace with North Korea we should expect to be thrown out of every international organization we help to build and maintained. Pence needs to step back and find a small job at a megachurch like cleaning toilets. Cleanliness is close to . . .
7
I had to remind myself what exactly Gaullist meant other than the obvious relationship to Charles de Gaulle. Upon remembering, I'm not exactly encouraged. Good for Merkel for talking down Trump. Mike Pence deserves worse than silence. I'll take his humiliation wherever I can find it. However, this new dynamic is not exactly reassuring.
Ask yourself this: What would Putin do? The largest economy in Europe is ridiculing US influence and at least hinting at a closer relationship with Russia and China. Trump is continuing to accomplish every Russian objective he approaches. Pence's embarrassment notwithstanding, I'm not sleeping better at night.
8
Europe doesn’t pay for its security. Let them learn how expensive it is to keep a standing army. Get rid of useless NATO. Let’s see how the population of europe who enjoy a lot of free stuff because they don’t have to pay for defense will do when their 50% tax turns to 80%.
BMW built a billion dollar plant in Mexico to try to use the nafta loophole by trans shipping but now they’ll hv to build more plants in the US. The South Carolina BMW plant only builds SUVs because SUVs have tariffs on them. So tariffs do work and it is a national security issue. Economic security provides contentment to the populace. Look at every place that has high unemployment they also have political instability.
Europe and Japan will be at the table in short order bc of a possible car tariff. That would crush their economies. They need to be able to sell their products in the US for their economies to be stable. They have zero options.
1
In a time of moment to moment none stop news, it is important to remember that over time, things do change.
Think back to the last few years of George Bush's presidency. Even before he was the lame duck president during the pre-2008 election days when our investment banks were failing. Europe couldn't wait to get rid of him and Cheney soon enough. They even went so far as to award Obama the Nobel Peace Prize just for replacing Bush.
Europe is and has been for some time, thirsting for American leadership and for relatively good reason. American power and money to name two. But also America's fierce independence and generally infallible optimism.
But Europe's concerns are part and parcel a reflection of our own uncertainty as a democratic state. We are a pendulum that swings from one side to other and if the arc swings too wide, we swing back in the other direction with equal momentum. 8 years of Regan plus 4 years of Bush brought us 8 years of Clinton. 8 years of him brought us 8 years of Bush - although it took the SCOTUS to push that over the line. And 8 years of Bush brought us Obama - an African American no less. And 8 years of Obama brought us Trump, although not by popular vote.
And just like the climate swings are ever more severe, so are our political swings. Perhaps we will save ourselves in 2020, but if we have 4 more years of Trump, the swing will be massive.
I think Europe has figured this out by now. They are simply as impatient as the rest of us.
3
What has happened to us? Our country, once the great example of internationalism, of cooperation, of participation in the affairs of the world, has retreated into some dark corner of ignorance and and isolationism.
Merkel's comment on BMW's biggest plant located in Lindsay Graham's state (!) was just so perfect.
I just hope that those European leaders who heard Vice President Biden speak will seriously consider his comment that "This, too, shall pass."
It shall. It must.
7
Well done! Dignity, a love of our planet, and hope for the future of the 7th generation.
Trump sneers and loathes at these visions and hopes. They indicate a bond between us, when his only goals are to drive a wedge between all that is decent, and to be called "King".
6
Trump’s hubris may have one saving grace—it might force Europe to see the necessity of going it alone as a European alliance or to choose to be a series of relatively small, largely irrelevant countries. Maybe throw the UK, Poland and Hungary out of the EU and let them fend for themselves. It would be a good test of one model. But decide your destiny
As the Vietnamese, Pakistanis, Afghan, Iraqis and Kurds know the US is an undependable ally. Europe knows this as well as we sat out the worst if WW I and II.
With a population and economy larger than the US Europe can go it alone—if they just decide
6
I read the New Yorker piece and am not surprised that Mallory's novel is, like the man himself, a fraud. If his book tour isn't yet over — unfortunately, I think we might just have missed it — readers should protest in front of host stores ("Don't buy this crook's book!"). Morrow was well aware of Mallory's deceitful past and should be ashamed of publishing his book.
Thanks again to Roger Cohen for another insightful, spirited article on US-European relations. Let's hope for a Democratic candidate in 2020 who has some historical knowledge and sense of how important Western Europe is to us. As things stand now, we can be grateful that Angela Merkel is still Chancellor of Germany.
6
It is good but also disheartening to hear Europeans are coming together in a way that will lessen its reliance on the U.S.
It is good for the Europeans to realize that they cannot rely on the the U.S. because Trump has proven himself to be so capricious. And the way the electoral college works, there is no guarantee Trump, or another bully won't get elected for the next term. Perhaps Europe should have weakened their reliance on the U.S. long ago.
At the same time, it is, of course, disheartening to realize that Americans are no longer trustworthy. We have been the world's stalwart example of freedom and liberty (our P.I.C., our annihilation of Native Americans, our history of slavery, and our imperialism of the past, notwithstanding) for a long time, and I for one, have taken pride in being an American citizen for that very reason.
Now, I live in Mexico, and while I often miss my U.S. home (I am a naturalized citizen stemming from Germany), these past two years, I have been powerfully glad my husband and I live where we do, today.
4
Hey, that wasn't stony silence following the mellifluous intonation by our esteemed also-ran veep. It was obviously shock and awe at such greatness and benignity.
Lesser mortals just don't understand true greatness. They don't get that this silence was the biggest and broadest and best silence ever in history.
The only other reaction might be scornful laughter, inescapable giggling, cringe-soaked, embarrassed chuckles which greeted the great individual one himself in all his adorable peachiness when he sort of spoke at the UN.
10
Here's the thing I've never understood: Trump's campaign was primarily directed at a domestic audience -- the people he claimed have been left behind due to immigration, bad trade deals like NAFTA, and coastal liberalism.
His attack on NATO, his withdrawal from both the Paris climate change agreement and the Iran nuclear deal all seemed to be animated by his hatred of Barack Obama and everything Obama stood for. Our relationships with allies in Europe were collateral damage of his Obama hostility. Other than a handful of right wing de-constructionists (take Steve Bannon and John Bolton, please), I don't recall hearing many Americans, even Trump supporters, marching in the streets or attending Trump rallies motivated by a desire to destroy our traditional alliances with the EU and European nations generally. (Trump's obvious personal dislike of Angela Merkel, and Merkel's high regard for Obama, helps explain why Germany seems to be a special target of criticism by the Trump regime).
It just seems, like so much else about Trump, yet another example of a childish temper tantrum run amuck, in which close allies are caught up in Trump's insecurities and anti-Obama wrath, rather than as part of some kind of thought-out foreign policy.
I may be wrong. But I doubt it.
12
With Munich Security Conference representatives like Pence and the Javankas, our country is not any 'the more' embarrassed. The 'ship of fools' that trump & co. has made of our 'good' citizens (and 'good others' among us) has sailed us beyond the waters of new embarrassments -- such that, even if potus ignoramus himself were there to misrepresent us, our embarrassment would not be any 'the greater.'
P.S. I'm sure that John McCain would be weeping in his grave if such were possible -- as 'sure' as I am 'of' the nightmare that has 'become' my life since trump and his cohort of docile, spoiled, ignorant and allegiant creeps 'came to town.'
4
Do you know how the really blatant discrimination statistically looks like?
If you submit a thousand op-eds and posts but none of them gets published or receives any kind of the editorial recommendation.
So what!
There is the endless pool of knowledge in front of us. Try to learn harder and improve yourself.
Your work is just an attempt to help your countrymen.
It means the editors are not hurting you but their readers, meaning nobody is discriminating against the author.
The true victims are somewhere else…
That’s the power of knowledge. It calms you down and enables you to refocus on what really matters – gaining even more knowledge….
Feel sorry for those craving for the public accolades and awards.
Those are intellectually as shallow as their achievements.
That’s why they can’t solve any chronic problem over the last decades and centuries!
What a stark comparison: the stony and uncomfortable silence when Pence brought greetings to the group from Donald Trump. How awkward was that silence.
Fast forward to any political rally that the Trump organization orchestrates, with people cheering him on and blindly believing the lies that spew out of his mouth.
The middle ground? Giving Trump some credit for wanting to pull us out of the quicksand wars in the Middle East, something that I believe should have happened 15 years ago. So I give him some credit for wanting to do that.
But that's about the extent of it for this Democrat. It looks like the 2020 campaign will be a bruising one for the country. As cynical as I have become since Trump became president, I have to believe he will be defeated soundly.
Then, at a future security conference of our NATO allies, bringing greetings from the President of the United States will produce a radically different response than the one Pence got.
4
We can all hope that Trump will be voted out in 20 months; that the Dems in the House will be able to contain him somewhat; or wake up one morning to find out that he has gone the way of all flesh from natural causes.
6
@AlexanderIt is funny that you put it in those terms. I was just wondering what physical toll the job was taking on the very unfit, unhealthy man.
The real danger is that Pence would be thrust into becoming the decider.
1
Really?! Can’t we do better than this?
Allegedly, if only there were no Trump, this world would be much better place?!
Does it sound familiar?
Just use the following names instead of the aforementioned subject: Clinton, Bush, Obama…
Are we finally going to start talking about the key principles, like borrowing from the future to get wealthier today?!
That is theoretically impossible! That’s how the financial, debt, and monetary bubbles are created and inflamed…
And then one day all the free press is going to report that nobody could have predicted the meltdown or see it coming…
No, we don’t want to see although it has been clear from the very beginning that kind of behavior is self-destructive and extremely dangerous!
Dear American friends, be careful. If you continue like this, it will not be you who isolate yourselves from the world, but the world will isolate you, because the world has changed. Europe, which is not just a geographical expression, but something deeper, serves America just as America serves Europe in a relationship based on a common sense and mutual respect. You may not have noticed, but you are the most dangerous enemies of America. Think about it. Best regards from Padua (EU).
6
Friend: we are the richest, most powerful nation in earth’s history. We have the largest economy and most powerful military by wide margins. Europe combined cannot match American economic and military prowess. How many times have American GI’s bailed Europe out? I cannot recall a time when Europe came to American defense. We will be fine. How many aircraft carriers does Europe have?
1
@Flavius: We are thinking about it. You'll have our answer in November 2020. If we don't get it right then, you can write us off and start planning a new order that includes a long-term dysfunctional USA. Until then, I hope you can just hold your nose and hope we get over it.
@EWG If you are the richest, why over one hundred millions of Americans are in poverty or at risk to be? If you have the largest economy and the most powerful military force by wide margins, what does “Make America great again” mean? I suggest you to read a good book of History. Best regards.
It's extremely sad, absolutely macabre/unspeakable, to have this person, the vice president, speaking for me at this event, or any other events for that matter. I didn't even elect him to his job, nor did many others since he was elected, "rode in" on "the shirt sleeves of mr. t." One wonder what some simpletons actually voted for these two now think having this ..., can't find the right word(s) for this administration, may not be one/any.
6
looking at how trump has undermined the alliance between the US and Europe how could you not think he owes something to Putin
6
AMERICAN STALINISM
Pence - with Ivanka as an obsequious spectator - delivered a Stalinist-style performance. Praise to the "Leader", no questions answered from the audience: giving a monologue, not a speech within a civilized debate. How easily Stalinism becomes the fall-back position of of any dictatorial environment : the mawkishness, the servility, the leader cult. Very hard to conceive it in the USA, except for the evangelical ambience to which Pence is attached. In the evangelical environment, Stalinism merges with religious fanaticism. It seems political fiction, which unfortunately has become reality. I hope we get over the nightmare.
8
Poor Mike Pence. He had the look of a stand-up comic who just told his best joke and received silent rage as a reaction. The gloves are off. Trump has severed all amicable ties with our allies. The hate and fear he generates here has crossed the Atlantic. It will take a Joe Biden to achieve rapprochement.
3
The "leader of the free world" is too busy golfing to lead.
5
Merk is mad. The shackles are off. She's wagging a Gaullist finger.
Cohen reads like a back alley French movie with sub-titles. Casablanca with berets, dangling cigs and smelly armpits.
Replete with self promotion - a French ambassador, I knew Angie when - and flowery script - glittering with impish mockery.
And plenty of snarky patois.
But, ample credit where credit is due. The always gratuitous Trump-is-Satan.
Gotta sell those ad-clicks.
Sorry Rog: I'll go with the Wall Street Journal's parallel column today: "Europe's Challenge is Decline, Not Trump."
And if you find no merit in this, here's a challenge for you: Since you're such a Francophile and Europhile. Walk through the streets of Paris this week wearing a kippa or Jewish Star -- something identifying you as a Jew (you still are I believe -- despite a penchant for always blaming Israel for just about everything, while giving the dysfunctional obstructionist Palestinians a perpetual pass -- when you're not coming up with new rationalizations for Iran's ayatollahs). See how far you get without either being harassed or attacked. Bonus points for trying this next to the next Gilets Jaunes protest. If you think this is a bit too risky, okay. Try Malmo in Sweden or Potsdam in Germany instead.
Then come back with Part II of this column about how much more enlightened Europe is.
2
@JW Points well taken! Although antisemitism is an ancient European scourge, it seems to me that Cohen is perpetually stuck in a mid-70s mindset of his youth, when the context has changed entirely from that era. It's as if he were fighting the last war rather than the actual one that's happening now. He would have us believe that the most serious threat to Jews comes from people like Marion Le Pen and Matteo Salvini, when the most enthusiastic recent practitioners of antisemitism are young second- and third-generation French Muslim men. Neither Le Pen nor Salvini are antisemites, and both recognize where the true threats to the European civil society come from today.
1
The right accused Obama for apologizing, Trump has made the world laugh at the US. The right accused Obama of violating the constitution and making power grabs. Trump violates the constitution every day and the right, republicans remain silient.
This is shameful!
10
Whoever succeeds Donald Trump with have to go on one of the marathon apology tours of all time -- to make amends for the stupidity, cupidity and inconstancy of the Trump administration. Vice President Biden made a start on mending relations with Europe with his conciliatory talk in Munich. I have a feeling however, that four years of Trump will take much longer than that to repair. The sooner we see the back of Trump and his idiot minions, the better.
4
Both Trump and Pence are useful idiots for forces they do not understand. The former is ill-prepared, narcissistic, and serves only his base desires while keeping almost 40% of the 'poorly educated' in thrall and the latter is a christian in name only with a shariah-like mentality. And don't get me started on Pompeo and Bolton...
3
While nearly all of these problems are caused by Donald Trump and his empty brain, the real underlying issue that Europeans are grappling with is that Americans were stupid enough to elect this moron, and may do so again. They have reason to be concerned, for Trump's base is always there for him, no matter what he does and Europeans know this. They best pick up the gauntlet of freedom and take over, because America is no longer brave enough to lead. What we do now is look for real estate deals and watch cable television. The future is in Europe and Asia; North America is on the decline.
5
No, it’s not 1945. It’s 1938.
4
Guess what--this is just another diversion from the domestic travails of our would-be King and his unconstitutional power-grab.
The next armed conflict involving American troops war will not take place in Europe, but in South America. The Leader is already rattling sabers and beating the war-drums.
New York Times, please don't take you eye off the ball!
Vote Democratic in 2020.
1
Pencé, Ivanka and Jared. Couldn't find a less qualified group of people to go anywhere. Maybe Trump can send in the Fox woman with the nanny problem.
5
Do we get some sort of volume discount for impeaching Trump and Pence in the same move? As in a BOGO?
6
Pence's performance was a complete insult and alarming embarrassment to our country and to our European allies - the Chinese and Russians beamed when this idiot, in all of his sycophantic and arrogant grandeur, sauntered to the podium. To be lectured and admonished by the likes of this imbecile is unforgiving and unforgettable. Sorry international leaders, friends and foes, but this is not how the majority of Americans feel - time and patience will hasten his removal (and his bully boss) from future international assemblies, none too quickly one hopes.
5
As Amerika declines under Trumpy and his supporters Europe will pick up the mantle and be a beacon to the world.
2
Trump believes Putin, not his own intellgience agencies. That's all we need to know about Trump - Traitor. He is bought.
6
Let's just face the facts.
Trump is a Russian Bot. His direction from his Russian handlers is to sow chaos...everywhere. The is no plan or grand scheme. Simply, upset the status quo and sow chaos...everywhere
5
The thought that these ludicrous people represent our country anywhere is depressing beyond belief. Pence is as bad, or worse, than his boss. He's so dumb he actually thinks he can be elected president when he couldn't even get re-elected in his own state. He's Roy Moore without equestrian skills.
But it's Jared and Ivanka that take the cake. The Botox twins. Leaping to their feet! Cringeworthy and really creepy at the same time so let's give credit where due. Hopefully they got to relax with their pals in Saudi Arabia torturing some smart alec journalists before jetting home at taxpayer expense.
I trust Putin's Russia more than Trump, too, as only one of them knows what they're doing and has never bothered to hide what that is. Ruin western democracy. With Trump in office he doesn't have to lift a finger, just wait for him and his Republican enablers in the senate to do it for him.
MAGA! For Russia's sake!`
5
Please world know this. Trump is not our president. Putin is and most of my fellow USA citizens know this. I am ashamed of Trump and Pence but i am also terrified of both of them. I am not religious, but i would say they are both spawns of Satan.
6
Trump's boss, Tsar Putin, is very pleased at the disorder he has created.
3
Europe has, fundamentally, the same problem we do, which is that 40% of the public in each country is ill-informed and living in a dream world created by the lies of evil and irresponsible politicians and the hatred of foreigners. In Italy, Hungary and the United States they have gotten control of the power. In Britain, they don't have the full power, but they have put the country on the track to a train wreck. In France they riot without leaders or demands, responding to social media. In Germany, they are sinking into neo-Nazi dreams. (In Germany, it's only about 20%, not 40%, but their memories of the bad effects of fascism may be more vivid than everyone else's.) So while most European leaders are a lot better than ours, some are equally bad, and in general their publics are just as bad. It's just a question of where the constitution is weak enough to let the fascists get control. Surprise! the ancient, mighty and dignified U.S. Constitution is in the political emergency psych ward with Hungary and Italy.
2
I lived all over Europe from 1960 to '75 (went to public school there for about five years) and had to visit many times over the ensuing decades. The "man in the street," as they are fond of calling most people, have always been pro-Soviet, or at least Marxist-leaning, and anti-American. They have resented American power ever since the U.S. liberated much of the European land mass from the clutches of Mussolini and Hitler. If I go could back in time and become president in 1941, I would have let Europe fend for itself. The Russians would have had not big problem defeating Hitler on their own, and they would be welcome to all of Europe.
europeans know a dunce when they see one..... his name should be mike dunce not mike pence. I grew up in the midwest around guys like him..... on the football team, boring good looks with not much happening between the ears.
3
Germans, and Europeans, are dependent upon Russian fossil fuels, which is why they did not lead the charge when Russia invaded Crimea. They support Iran because it is a Russian client state.
NATO countries have failed to spend their treaty committed 2% of GDP on national and international defense, content to freeload on America.
Of course they liked Obama's policy of appeasement to Russia, as they loved Britain's appeasement of Hitler and his progressive narrative. Until they didn't.
Very happy to hear that Pence got the icy-cold shower the European gave him. Maybe he will wake up and create a spine. A thing the pathetic Republicans have lost, along with morality, decency, and become real monsters.
2
Putin has gotten what he wants out of Trump, injury to America's role as Europe's ally and protector. Whether Trump is a Russian asset or truly as useful idiot or not, Putin may be quite happy.
As to Pence, he made the proverbial deal with the devil and should not be surprised if he is cast out of heaven by the angels as a result.
2
I have high hopes for the United States renewing its interest in human rights and multilateralism, but who is to say something like Trump won't happen again? I must admit that I think it is better for the world, and therefore for the United States, if Europe takes on the mantel of Leader of the Free World.
An autocrat take control of any nation, as the US has unfortunately learned, but for this to happen to a large enough swath of Europe to imperil a stable, decent world seems to me far less likely than another Trump happening to us again.
1
Inter-alliance debate is healthy. What is even healthier is when that debate takes place in the open. Angela Merkel benefits (it shores up her own political position) as do American voters, who in the age of the internet and instant news flashes may well be paying attention to what she and others are saying.
The Europeans know far more about the Americans than vice versa. The former know that the 2016 election was an aberration. They are waiting patiently for the US to come around, and we will.
1
Western democracies need to stick together. Germany should be ashamed of flirting with Putin's Russia. Trump may be bad, but until he starts murdering journalists and annexing territory from neighbours, Germans should be able to tell the difference.
1
Roger, you missed the funniest thing that happened - the absolute silence after Pence was lavishing introductory praise the trump on high expecting applause and getting not even a peep of sound in approval from the crowd. You've got to see ... and hear the silence. Truly remarkable. Not sure how SNL can make it funnier or more humiliating for the trump-Pence duo.
Still, trump confuses SNL with real news! Again!!! Hilarious and tragic. But he doesn't care, he's still buddies with Putin, Kim, Xi, Duterte, Edrogan, MBS, and Adolf and other tyrants of history if they were still around no doubt.
No wonder Europeans, and likely most Americans, believe Putin more than the trump - because at least Putin knows exactly what he is doing and is playing trump like an off-key harmonica virtuoso.
Instead of fighting our enemies, he is fighting our allies and Americans in his own government. Is that his recipe for success? How to lose friends and alienate people?
4
I am pained to hear that the Europeans met Pence's remarks with stony silence. However, I would ask Angela Merkel: you want the United States to stay in Syria; why don't the Germans send troops? Are our soldiers more expendable than yours?
1
Of all the useful stooges in Trump's orbit, Mr. Pence is one of the most interesting. You get the sense that he truly doesn't realize how foolish he appears.
3
It is columns like this by Mr. Cohen which keeps this subscriber reading, even as the Gray Lady keeps tilting toward the far left of the party while largely ignoring every other Democrat or grouping.
If Trump were not bad enough, the V.P. is either the greatest actor of our time or a true believer in this disastrous shredding of multilateral relations and NATO. So removing Trump may only bring a change of tone but not policy.
The message is clear. Trump/Pence must lose in 2020. The saddest part is the cynicism. The Trump crowd and a large part of the conservative establishment (not the neo-Cons) have gone silent though they know this a a massive disaster.
Yet they are cynical and silent because they know 80 percent of Americans do not read any quality journal and about 90 percent ignore all international stories unless it involves the British royals. Shame on the Republicans who know better and remain silent as our standing in the world and stability of democracy itself melts away.
4
It has been argued, quite successfully, that the strongest argument against impeaching Trump is his animatronic VP, Mike Pence. Trump is just ignorant, and that is the basis of all his thoughts, actions and demands. Pence, on the other hand, has a cranium that is as close to an absolute vacuum as it is possible to achieve.
This is not to say his skull is empty. It is crammed full of bible verses, for instance, and that is part of the problem with a President Pence. America is too close to becoming a theocracy as things stand today. With Pence's hands on the tiller, the Ship of State would become an ark, with all the physical comforts and enlightenment that implies, with only those meeting Pencian guidelines permitted aboard.
Instead of "Give me liberty or give me death!" we would be faced with an option more like the one ISIS offered those under its influence.
3
Nobody knows the future but everybody should understand the past better. Analyzing the history correctly would help us choose the best future for the next generations.
No war has ever solved the problems, not even the WWII, but only inflamed them. But, what about the Nazism? Hey, what about the Great Inquisition?
Nobody militarily defeated the latter, but it learned and changed gradually and over the time.
If you mistreat your own population they are going to relocate to the other regions and help develop the other countries. Your crime is your worst punishment.
The great alliances only impose the catastrophic damages on the humanity. The huge pacts only multiply the tragic consequences. Without those alliances there would have been no WWI and WWII.
The NATO and the Warsaw pact put us on the edge of the nuclear annihilation.
Europe was almost destroyed by the aggressions and conquests.
Shouldn’t the knowledge and proper system of values protect us from our own foolishness instead of primal fear of military retaliation?
Are we really continue to use the medieval logic in the third millennium?
Germany, if you're listening, I hope you can find those few thousand incriminating emails from the Trump server going into 2020 election. Hey, if Russia can play that game, so can our allies.
3
I loved the no clap response Mr Pence got mentioning Trumps name. Too bad a shoe toss wasn't next like George Bushes news conference. I am sure it is coming.
3
What a constant, interminable, unending embarrassment and humiliation the current administration is to our country Every. Single. Day.
5
@VB ditto. i also cringe when we are being "represented" by morons, clowns and pathetic to the core. give me obama any day, the republican object of blatant racism, for compassion, common sense and true caring.
Clearly, Trump has undermined the American/European alliance with his isolationist, America First, NATO-bashing posture. But is it premature and overly pessimistic to say that alliance is dead for good? After all, if a Democrat is elected in 2020, or even if a moderate, mainstream Republican unseats Trump, won't the alliance be back as before? I think we need more analysis from the pundits about whether the EU/US alliance is dead for good, or whether there's just a temporary stoppage due to this aberrant president, and the ties are strong enough to survive his stupidity.
2
Silence can be asowerful as a nuclear explosion is NOT.
That silence afforded Pence in Europe and the expression on his face says it all. I have never appreciated the power of silence more.
But Pence went right ahead with his diatribe of nasty evil. It
brought back the diatribes of Nazism.
Only Europeans can appreciate fully those feelings.
2
Of course Mr. Pence didn’t take any questions after his transliterated speech. He is incapable. The man is both SIR (sycophant in residence) and DAAP (dumb as a post). Either way, it is incredibly embarrassing to watch or listen to him. (Good thing “mother” was with him or he wouldn’t even have had dinner with Ivanka and Jared.) Ms. Merkel’s frustration with America is palpable, and not just because her IQ is greater than that of Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence and Mr. Bolton combined. 2020 can’t come soon enough.
1
Should our nation survive this era of fear-mongered, tribalistic, blinkered chauvinism, then I have little doubt that power-hungry toadies like Pence, McConnell and the rest of the Republican deplorables will go down in history as ... well, the deplorables that they are.
I just hope that history will, as seems to be happening generally, pass quickly enough that these deplorables will be forced to come face-to-face with their actions before they're dead and buried. Just remember that after being exposed for the power-hungry, fear-mongering slime-ball that he was, Joe McCarthy died at 50.
A fitting tribute, and one well worth emulating.
3
And so, it has come to this. The best we can offer the Europeans...our long-standing allies...is the sycophant Pence, spouting the usual nonsense from an administration with no grounding in reality. How low the mighty have fallen...in such a short time. Thank you Republicans. May we give you what you so richly deserve in 2020.
2
Nice try for a headline, but I don't think that the European response included any "thank you" to Pence whatsoever.
1
The late historian Tony Judd may be turning in his grave. Post WW2 configuration of a united Europe he wrote about, one designed to stave off the unbridled aggression of Russia, is coming undone with the election of a former casino owner and his faux preacher sidekick. Unimaginable.
1
EU is better off with enemies than with a "friend" like the USA under the present POTUS. US Vice President under the watch of his boss' daughter, delivering a speech eulogizing his incompetent but arrogant boss, is in itself a disgrace. Only thing it points out is that POTUS can build nothing but is destroying USA by attempting to destroy its Allies first. Then, we can take comfort that he is so arrogant and such a nitwit, he can not accomplish anything except his locker room bravado.
1
"making a mockery of shared values through his embrace of autocrats from Pyongyang to Riyadh. Words like “dialogue” and “cooperation” are not part of Trump’s conception of alliances. The alliances therefore erode. "
This sentence encapsulates why Trump is the president Americans deserve. Americans used to only have to pretend to be beautiful and interesting: 70% think they are of above average intelligence and instead of accepting that even conventionally attractive people are usually kind of meh everyone has to be considered beautiful. Anyone would collapse under this heavy cross, but they doubled down and added 'pretending to be moral' to their theatrical repertoire. If I was delusional enough to believe I was beautiful, intelligent, and moral, I would expect to be worshipped as a deity and that is precisely what Americans expect. This has been clear since the 'waldorf salad' skit but is now beyond parody. Is it even possible to buy a shirt there that does not say 'Queen of Everything' on it? Is it legal to question someone's royal status? Even if it was fairly clear I engaged in child sacrifice regularly, my neighbours would consider it their sacred duty to not notice because they are not Gods who expect me to pay obeisances to their moral authority. And there is a solid case that worshipping false idols is more damning than child sacrifice.
None of this is a surprise. The only surprise is how long it has taken for everyone to see that impeaching trump (lower case t) would give us as bad, if not possibly worse, in the marionette that pence is. Dear Europe: most Americans are painfully aware of the mess we are in, but we are also finding our Democracy while challenged, seems to be holding up. Hang on Europe, yes we are embarrassed, mortified even, but we'll be back. We will.
5
Stony silence is the best answer to Trump and his acolytes. Then organize to vote ALL republicans out of office in 2020.
4
"Human dignity and freedom?" These are expressions totally absent from the lexicon of President Trump and his toxic apostles.
When the majority of citizens in America's most consequential European allied country trust the serially mendacious post-Soviet Union more than the United States, we Americans have a serious problem with our foreign policy.
We are responsible for the starkly evident degradation, not the Europeans.
3
Are we willing to be fully dependent on Europe for our national military protection?
If not, why should they be dependent on us if there are at least two times more people living in Europe than here?
Why should we finance and patronize them? Why should they trust us?
If it were perfectly logical right after the WWII at the moment Europe self-destructed and became dependent on us, it’s not the case any longer.
There is no sense in trying to flog a dead horse.
Why should America go to the nuclear war with Russia over the medieval animosity between Moscow, Warsaw, Riga, Vilnius or Tallinn?
Why should Europe go to the conflict with the Muslim world over our unconditional support for Israel?
The true friends do help each other understand and eliminate their worst blunders and misconceptions instead of unconditionally supporting them on the wrong course!
1
It must be frustrating, or let's say debilitating, to spend an entire political career talking to adults and then, at the end of your career being asked to defer to a middle school intellect at best.
2
Pence peppered his remarks with Trump's name because Trump was watching. Pence spoke to an audience of one. He also spoke FOR an audience of one.
Thank you, Europe, for your polite rebuke. Withholding applause is like withholding oxygen for Trump. It wounds his tender, sensitive ego in a way words cannot. It means his ratings are low. Oh, the horror, the horror!
5
pence has shown us exactly who he is, time and again. There can be no place for this man in national politics. We, too, must reject him. The media must continue to shine a light on the very dark mike pence, and the equally dark mitch mcconnell. T
1
Hey, I just figured it out. If America wants to get back to the prosperity of the post-WW2 era, it needs another war that will ramp up production and put everybody to work. Trump is, it turns out, a genius. WW3. What a concept!
Just a though but perhaps Trump's reneging on treaties and allies...openly and quite publicly is driven by your Military Industrial Complex. After all, more tension means more sales...and that means the role the Unites States played in the last great war can be reprised...waiting for everyone to be at each others throat, profiting from this with the sales of armament before, finally, entering the foray as a savior. Unlike last times though, you aren't the only ones with nuclear capabilities...but you are still the only country that has actually used it against another nation. How arrogant of your president (or his staff) to ask Japan's Prime Minister to nominate him for a peace Nobel...
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity
1
Pence is a fundamentalist Christian of the sort who believe that they are playing a role in some eschatological plan. Destroying any semblance of global order and provoking Armageddon will help usher in the second coming of Christ -- or so they think. Everything else is just window dressing to these people.
History and reason are irrelevant to someone like Pence.
1
The damage caused by the trump administration to American leadership and strategic positioning has undergone irreversible damage.
The damage at home is even worse.
The damage to environment and the welfare of future generation is the worst.
All this, just to line up the pockets of trumps and their cronies.
VOTE, people!
1
Part of me cheered when OUR allies did not applaud Minister Pence or The Con Don.
Then I became sad to the core.
How in the world did WE THE PEOPLE allow OUR government to deteriorate to this? How did the Koch brothers and Russians - and their International Mafia 0.01% Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys cabal - get control of OUR United States of America.
Reagan's idea of "the shining city on the hill" to describe America was just a big lie. Kool aide to make us believe he was working for us when he was the first democracy-destroyer. Like any good actor or preacher.
Robber Barons and crooks were the first to come to America to exploit the resources without any social conscience. That is what America was - a treasure chest for crooks. That is what they are still trying to make us today.
However, WE THE PEOPLE have the power to stop them and truly make OUR United States of America a beacon of Democracy, Hope and relative Peace for the world.
NOW is the time. Every day is the time to fight the Robber Barons to protect OUR lives and those of our children, grandchildren and all children of the world.
3
The US was instrumental in constructing a new world order in the wake of World War II - which was a result of the failures of the order constructed out of the wreckage of World War 1 plus the ambitions of a rising Asian power - Japan.
Now the US is consumed by the kind of forces that infected Germany and Italy in the run-up to World War II: resentment, a search for magical answers to restore imagined past glories, and scapegoating a selection of enemies to blame for America's ills. The British are pursuing Brexit against all reason. And China is now the rising Asian power.
There's one certainty. If global conflict breaks out again, nuclear weapons mean it will be a short one. If by some chance that kind of Armageddon is avoided, Climate Change threatens to be just as devastating.
"...Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...."
William Butler Yeats was a prophet.
246
@Larry Roth
Absolutely terrifying. The Yeats lines are frightening. Optimism seems useless. Our poor kids...
13
@Larry Roth which selection of enemies are we “scapegoating?”
Pls be specific.
@Larry Roth
Love that poem! The poet's eye doesn't miss a thing...
3
What, exactly did Pence mean by saying it is time for the European countries to tear up the Iran nuclear agreement? Was this a threat of further disengagement from NATO by Trump, for whom Pence is a mere mouthpiece?
We focus so much on the optics of these performances that the substance disappears. What if, in this case, the Trump Administration is actually engaged in a planned, coordinated operation? An operation designed to tear up the Atlantic alliance that kept the peace, in Europe, mostly (see Bosnia), for the past 74 years?
1
Funny how Brooks and Cohen are basically on the same page today, Brooks trending a little more local and Cohen going global. It seems that dialog and multilateralism are on their minds, instead of isolationism and individualism.
I appreciate these comments. I know we can get back there.
2
One could argue that, when push comes to shove, Europe's interests align more with Russia's than with those of the US. Besides geographical propinquity there is a lot of shared history.
For sure, there are major obstacles. A lot of that past history wasn't peaceful and especially in Poland and the Baltic, what Russia facetiously and insultingly refers to as the Near Abroad, memories are long.
However, the evolution of the US's priorities has been such that it no longer figures as a reliable partner. This isn't new -one could argue it started with the disastrous decision to invade Iraq in 2003- and, looked at from the US it is not without sense, Europe will need to choose.
Having relied for too long on the nuclear umbrella NATO, read: the US, provided it is unable to defend itself in any meaningful way. It requires allies, and therefore Russia is best positioned.
Of course, such a rift would not only mean the end of NATO, it would deprive the US Military of ist access to ports and airfields and facilities on the European continent... Trump would be wise to consider the implications thereof on the US's capabilities.
2
However embarrassing that Pence seems unable to speak without inserting DJT's name into each and every sentence, he does seem to be speaking a lot more than usual. Perhaps sensing his own role in an immediate future, we should pay attention to his climb into our view. The man is hollow and shallow and though more able to find words, understandable words, than his President (not ours), he is not what we need if we are lucky enough to be rid of the current administration. The emptiness of the far right and the 30%ers are drowning us out in exhaustion. Indiana was thrilled when he left.
1
The best thing that came out of this is the rejection of Pence, aka Trump Light. Inside Trump's bubble Pence seems to believe God has sent him to save the world. The world isn't interested. Neither will the U.S. be when Pence tries to replace The Donald in the oval office.
2
Europe's problem is that they did not offer money to Trump. I am sure that there are many ways that secret money could have been funneled to Trump (or Jared).
The Russians, Chinese, Israelis, Saudis and probably the North Koreans have all been suspected of giving money to Trump or his family. Russian campaign financing, Russian money laundering, Chinese trademarks for Ivanka, Jared's loan money for 666 Fifth Avenue and most likely a lot more we don't know about.
Trump needs the cover of watching Faux Fox News when he is making all his un-logged and unrecorded calls .
This POTUS gig for Trump is ALL about himself and money. Values such as dignity and freedom have NEVER been a concern of Trump and have been lost by the GOP.
The silent treatment of Pence was well deserved. America's relationship with the EU has been damaged by Trump but not completely broken. We will have to repair the damage and that is not only doable but offers the opportunity for improvement and recommitment based on our shared values.
3
Many questions will persist as to the way forward for Europe but they are correctly writing off the United States as a faithful ally. No matter what happens in U.S. elections in 2020 and beyond, it is clear that it would be willful denial to consider the United States a reliable nation for any extended period. Plan accordingly.
2
Europe has ridden on the coattails of the US for too long. NATO's overall budget is 51% financed by the US as is 71% of Europe's military budget. Trump merely calls out this imbalance and, differently then previous presidents, has strongly called for it to end. About time.
If the EU is going to survive, let the member states do it on their own. I hope the gravy train is over. No wonder they hate him. He told the truth.
1
@Bill
Ever heard of WW2 ? Probably not.
3
@JL Yes, JL, I have. As I recall that history, the Allies, led by the US stopped a worldwide aggression wherein Germany was a prime motivator. Now, the US spent trillions of dollars to help rebuild war torn Europe and get it back on its feet. Well, that is over. Get used to paying for your own alliances and military.
1
The question is, does anyone in the WH or the spineless GOP get the message? Our "America First (and Only)" stance doesn't give us any moral authority, or even any authority to stand in front of the world and demand they do anything.
It's clear the Trump world does not accept intelligence nor pay any attention to any of the decades of experience those that came before them have at working with world powers.
It's also clear we won't be a world power if the insane right stays in charge. We're worried about a wall that isn't needed and fighting with countries that aren't a problem while the rest of the world carries on.
12
Let’s analyze the worst Trump’s ongoing foolishness, the idea that he could protecting America by starting the bloody wars with Iran and Venezuela.
At this moment we have our domestic problems, as well as Tehran and Caracas. Those are the three completely different sets of difficulties.
By starting the bloody war, we would just create the additional troubles without solving anything.
The wars don’t protect the peace but just destroy it.
The wars don’t reinvigorate the economy but just sap the vigor out of it and saddle us with the colossal debt.
The wars are the strongest indication of our intellectual inability to solve the structural problems. The only thing the wars are good for is to mask that incompetence of the leaders to compromise or understand the source of troubles.
Every conflict in the world is fought over the wrong ideas. The good ones don’t push you into the bloodsheds.
I came to America as a refugee from the Balkans, meaning I really understand the wars inside out because the conflicts are cyclical over there. They are fighting over the same issues for more than 600 years, without anybody being smart enough to change the system of values.
By the way, the Balkans is a misconception too.
The Balkan Mountain isn't the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea.
It should be called the Dinaric Peninsula per the largest mountain massive in that region, if that was the founding naming principle...
2
I appreciate the Europeans for giving Trump and Pence the honest and cold reception they deserve.
It's the treatment that Republicans in our own Congress, who in their hearts know better, are too dishonest, shallow, and sycophantic to give them.
17
Impeachment enthusiasts, pay attention. Mike Pence would be no improvement over Trump. Remove them both in 2020.
9
When Mitch McConnell becomes embarrassed enough, perhaps he will end his fealty to Trump. I doubt this will ever happen to Pence - pigs will fly first. But McConnell is a better politician than that - maybe.
Let us all hope that Congress and others got the message that Europe sent so clearly by sitting on their hands.
Let us hope that Americans are seeing this and beginning to access the damage that Trump continues to do. The only way out is to vote the Democrats back in in 2020. Repairing this mess is going to take some time.
5
This Op-Ed by Roger Cohen is almost identical to the many op-eds written over a number of years full of scalding criticism for Ronald Reagan when he was President and his supposed 'cowboy' foreign policy. All the same denunciations from the NYT, the same condescending lectures from the author of the op-ed about our international interests, about our alliances, the same ridicule, the same suggestions of a lack of intelligence on the part of President Reagan, etc. Then the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union crumbled, Eastern Europe was set free from a brutal system of socialism (ah, will leftists never learn?) as a direct, immediate result of Ronald Reagan's willingness to absolutely confront the Soviet Union militarily, economically and culturally. All the leftists and experts found a rock to hide under for years. The arrogance and condescension is Mr. Cohen's; and the result of the tough and realistic policies of the Trump administration is that we are not in a major war and are withdrawing from minor engagements. That is generally the exact opposite of what we get from Democrats elected President, over whom Mr. Cohen will no doubt gush if given the opportunity. Let Europe assert itself, and let it pay its own defense bills; we saw in the 20th century how that worked.
1
@Tom Wolpert That's a unique take on US/NATO relations in the '80's - to say the least.
I guess the fact that the criticisms sound similar to you is to be taken as somehow "causal" - i.e., an indication that Trump is going to bring about a greatly improved situation in Europe? Interesting. And without the UK this time. Hmmm ...
1
Now we have a president who does the bidding of Russia.
1
Pence is the only government official that i fear more than Trump.
I want Trump to remain healthy because Pence would take over if Trump's health failed.
Pence is more dangerous than Trump because V.P. Pence is convinced that god is on his side.
Once they have god on their side, it's time to replace them with someone who is less powerful.
7
@M.W. Endres
I agree 100%. Religious fanatics are frightening independent of what sky friend they believe in.
1
Yes, occasionally we need reminding that Europe does not have an Atlantic nor a Pacific Ocean buffering it from Russia, and so our rendering it financial and military support is definitely in our own best interests.
5
No amount of civility toward our European allies or diplomatic expertise can refute the impression that ours is a Democracy in a downward spiral. The fact that, for the last two years, the gangster in the White House has been empowered by a Republican Congress refusing to exercise Constitutionally mandated oversight is an indication of the depths to which we have fallen. 20% or so of our population with no, or substandard health care, denial of climate science, lack of funding for education and research, crumbling infrastructure, rampant income inequality, historically low ratio of tax revenue to GDP, foreign policy chaos, and unimaginable corruption in Washington all give the impression of a country going in the wrong direction. It is not just Mike Pence that caused members of other democratic countries to sit in silence at the Munich Conference. It is how America has evolved downward over the past 40 years.
8
America is a mess. Trump destroyed whatever good will US had left. Trump is deranged and America's standing in the world is now in great peril.
Democrats must seize the moment in concerted efforts and start the impeachment process.
Trump and his band of sycophants will collapse under pressure, the house of cards will fall.
Why wait?
These are not normal times, there is no need to talk about Trump and 2020.
Trump must be expunged ASAP!
13
I thought McConnell was arising from his obsequiousness to Trump to doing the right thing by jamming Trump on his unilateral approach to our allies. Nope. Mitch is still toadying to The President and his ignorant thinking. How long will the Europeans wait for our current regime to disappear?
9
It always makes me laugh when trump's minions venture outside of the fox 'news' bubble to peddle their nonsense and are confronted with a little reality. The look on their faces is priceless!
21
Another fine piece by Roger Cohen. I am beginning to think the so-called Free World’s reaction to Trump is kind of a mirror to Kubler-Ross’s five stages of coming to terms with death. Only in this case it is Dismay, Disbelief, Disdain, Distrust and finally Disgust,
13
James F Traynor - yes. The current situation will likely have the effect of creating a paradoxically stronger EU, bolstered by a siege mentality that is not at all far fetched: the EU must band together more firmly, militarize independently, and plot its own course for resistance to Russia's inevitable limit-testing and incursion.
5
As distasteful as it will be, Europeans would be stupid to NOT consider either Russia and/or China as an ally now that the United States has thrown Europe under the bus. However, Europe will have to greatly increase its military spending.
1
Wow! What a rift, entirely provoked by Trump's arrogant vanity, exporting his mantra of instilling 'fear, hate and division'. All the while, embracing corrupt autocrats elsewhere, but especially his idol, Putin. At the same time, denigrating America's most ardent Allies and bullying them into submission, and breaking all the rules that kept peace for the last 70 years. However brief Trump's misrule may last, the trampling in our trust in democratic institutions may take a long time to recover. So, Europe did what it was supposed to do, saying 'enough already'.
345
@manfred marcus Hey, I'm trying to figure out why Trump loves MBS, Duterte, Xi, Kim Jong Un, Putin, and Erdogan but thinks Maduro is Satan? Maybe Maduro isn't approving a Trump branded resort or luxury condo building in Venezuela? That's gotta be it, because Trump loves iron fisted kleptocrats in every country where he thinks he might have a moneymaking opportunity. Maduro just isn't paying his vig for protection to the Trump org.
7
@manfred marcus
Lies, fear, hate, and division. I.e., fascism. It will take decades to fix the damage.
5
Germany flirting with Russia? Big mistake. Russia just wanted that and Angela Merkel would add another positive score to the long list of Putin's victories.
Let's face it: Putin controls Trump, hence the US.
He would control Syria and would have another access to the sea.
Now the destabilization of NATO is in progress.
All this thanks to a Puppet-in-Chief who hope to expand his personal interests.
What a disgrace.
2
The most disturbing fact is that Europe failed to stop us when we needed the help the most - when we were in the state of shock after the 9/11 attacks. At that moment we needed somebody calm, fully concentrated and sober to aid and advise us.
On the 9/11/2001 we were attacked by the terrorist group. All of the culprits were the Sunni Arabs, followers of the radical Wahhabism that originated in Saudi Arabia. The leaders and majority of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the ideology, financiers and recruiters.
Why would anybody believe that it could be defeated by invading Afghanistan, a non-Arab country?! No single Afghan citizen took a part in the preparations for the terrorist attacks.
No wonder that we have been waging the Afghan war for almost 18 years without defeating the terrorist ideology.
The NATO equally failed to stop us from invading Iraq, a socialist country that was a natural obstacle to the spread of the radical theological ideology.
The European countries equally didn’t stop us from destabilizing Libya and Syria, another two socialist states. After we dethroned or destabilized the local regimes, both countries were overrun by the ISIS that spread over the newly created lawless territories…
The true objective of any military alliance is to protect us from waging the devastating and unnecessary wars. Something’s deadly wrong if we have been engaged in the endless conflicts.
The good military alliances are there to maintain the peace!
2
This is all bad, but it is small potatoes compared with what DJT is doing in this country, specifically, his end run around the Art 1 of the Constitution. All monies will become fungible after this.
I believe, unless the GOP stops him, doubtful, he will win his case in the Courts, and that is game over. He is well on his way to being King, which is his goal. He is dog walking us to that point, while most cling to worthless optimism, because the alternative is too uncomfortable for smaller minds to think about.
And the more people that tell him he can't and shouldn't do this or that, the more he'll do it. The more cornered he gets, the more dangerous he becomes.
We have lost our gov't in just two short yrs right before our eyes.
Also the argument that a DEM POTUS will be able do their ERs and move money against the will of Congress is the height of ignorance and just run-of-the-mill stupid; with McConnell's Courts the GOP will be allowed to do it, but a Dem POTUS will be overruled.
Again, Bill Maher's analogy is quite correct: Our parents told us never to get into a car with a stranger... Well in 2016 we got into that car.
8
Speaking not as a European but as an Australian, the danger I see is that the relationship that has been built over the past one hundred years or so with the United States as an ally with shared values is now seriously damaged, if not irreparably then at least for a very long time.
It's not just that Trump is an insane clown, but that a very large proportion of Americans (witness polling today that reports that 89% of Republicans back his use of emergency powers to fund the wall) appear to support his challenge to long-held norms and values and to the US Constitution.
These days, when I meet Americans in our national capital, I find myself asking which of these people subscribe to trashing everything that we once assumed was sacrosanct to Americans.
Foreigners, then, are now asking themselves whether the 'real' United States is something very different to the one we believed. It's like waking up in bed next to someone who is unrecognizable.
11
Most Trumpers are older and don’t even have passports. They would mistake Austria for Australia and Thailand for Taiwan. Proportionally you are unlikely to meet many or any in Canberra or Vienna. They fear crossing borders. They perpetually fear the unknown rather than learn to know. That is the basis for the fear mongers to keep their rabid voting base intact. A feedback loop of ignorance feeding on falsehoods.
3
BWS,
Not a surprise about your perceptions of us - MOST of us aren't like that still and won't be. We will be red faced and hopefully a bit humbled as we straighten ourselves out after our National mid life trumpian crisis. To most Americans, Pence is laughable and frightening at the same time.
1
The future gets more nebulous each day. US allies cannot trust agreements as the next election may bring radical change as it did with Trump. Since Trump has been attacking European allies while praising dictators like Kim, Jung-Eun and Putin, why would Pence expect to get any applause? (Pence/Trump are too clueless to realize that NK and Russia are not doing the US any favors.)
3
Pence should go back to Indiana, he's no international diplomat, that's for sure. The Kushner cheerleaders were hilarious and good old Uncle Sam is the jester at the meeting, waving his finger at everybody who sticks to international agreements. The US delegation is out of its depth and testing everyone's patience.
Please don't impeach and give Pence any power. Just go and vote next time.
11
@gf Trust me we don't want him back here in Indiana. Maybe if he was going to stay confined to his house... Mostly, though, I want him in the hot seat in front of Robert Mueller.
2
@Indy1
I agree with you except for the ‘browbeating’ part.
Most of the ‘browbeating’ is being done on this side of the Atlantic with the bully-in-Chief in the WH. It would be one thing if the current Administration were asserting itself to its enemies to keep them at bay, but when the opposite is being done with the clear intent to destroy what took over 200 some odd years to build, one can only hope for a miracle in 2020!
1
The SILENCE which greeted Pence when he mentioned Trump's name spoke a thousand words.
5
The tears are welling up in my eyes....I am so ashamed. I used to be so proud of being an American - of our uniqueness in the world. Instead we have elected horrible leaders (Trump, Pence, McConnell). Are we #1 in any category that is considered good anymore?
3
Can the EU, with its North - South divide, survive in this new era?
Europe has been the caboose on the American security train for far too long.
While Trump is loathsome and even Bush’s “strategery” [sic] is well above his intellectual level, getting the Europeans to put on their big kid pants in global security is a relief. It’s too bad that at the same time as he seems to be successfully goading our larger-than-us with similar economic strength neighbor across the Atlantic to gird for confrontation, he is painting the US as the threat to be confronted.
A powerful ally in the EU is one thing. A powerful adversary is another kettle of fish entirely.
I'm not sure how we got here but it's going to be a struggle to get out. It's not so much Trump voters - allowing for a large segment who will do anything for money - it's the Republican Party. They are the serpent I fear the most because they will do, allow, and justify anything. 30 years of fermenting hatred has burst forth in a terrible and invasive plant.
4
Dear, dear - the lovely Ivanka was a front row witness to all the “respect” and “approval” that her daddy has earned from our allies. She was at this meeting.....why? What is her knowledge, her insight, her expertise on international affairs? Or was she only there for the photo ops; and to collect anecdotes of praise and adulation to regale her daddy? Did she worry, just a little, at the destruction her father has wreaked on the U.S. foreign relations? Most likely not. Still, I hope she felt that massive, international snub. As for Pence, he is such a acquiescent sycophant he deserves all the contempt that the international community can heap on him. To have our country represented by such perfidy and incompetence is truly a national disgrace.
9
No longer can Ivanka and Jared try to play both sides.
They're for women and mommies and family leave, but they're also good buddies with the Crown Prince and they just don't want to THINK about Khashoggi's savage murder. So they don't.
They're for Saudi Arabia and let's not go into the details because the Saudis are important to our foreign policy in the Middle East, which Jared is masterminding in secret. They're for women's rights and all that, but please do not bring up the women activists who are being tortured in Saudi prisons.
6
The reason there are so many strings holding up and controlling every movement a puppet makes is because they have no backbone. Good speech, Mr. Vice President. #TrumpPuppet #PutinPuppet
1
Our allies will permanently disavow us if Trump is reelected or Pence somehow winds up in the WH. Their patience is running thin
2
Pax Americana has become Faux Americana. Sorry to say but this was always going to happen. Building a faux national identity of good and righteous behavior on the back of the Native American Genocide, the Slave Trade, the destruction of the wild herds, the persecution of most human groups apart from WASPs, the plundering of your country for its resources, the fighting of judeo-christian deceitful wars for 50 years, and the 5% consuming 25% of the Earth's resources was always going to end badly. It just amazes me that Americans are as surprised as they seem to be about this fact.
What is going to be most interesting is how badly it actually does end. My bet is Americans turn on each other and we see American refugees in the next 30 years. Who should be treated just as they treat the refugees at their border today. Most of whom are only running from the endless wars and economic deceit the US has practiced since 1776.
Time for Europe, Russia, India, Iran, Africa and those western democracies with a conscience to see Faux Americana for what it is, and has in many ways always been, and work to create the fairer, globally focused society the US could not. And probably never wanted to do despite its fine words of god-driven drivel.
Times they are a changing...
2
Whether it’s “wall”, EU, Pence, or a seemingly endless inbred lineage of GOP headliners, politicians or pundits, it’s not just Trump who’s to blame but a divide, or direct line, between the trenchantly stupid and complacent that would never need “collusion” anyway to prove how much one vote matters.
2
it's easy to understand why the Russians wanted this guy to be president.
4
Yeah that was an amusing attempt at a speech by pence. What a loser. He thinks it's 40 years ago when Americans can come and dictate to Europeans how it's going to be. Nope, not anymore. Best of luck with your wall.
5
So, we got a whole new ballgame in Europe. This is one good and unintended consequence of Trumpism. It's probably best for the Europeans to finally figure out how to stand on their own many feet. But is spite of what Mr. Cohen says, I don't see the Germans and French agreeing on much having to do with the direction of the EU. Their rapprochement is paper thin. By the way, Cohen's bete noir, Matteo Salvini is also willing to deal with the Russians too, yet not a word about him from our savant.
1
The truth is that both sides are simultaneously right, meaning both the Democrats and the Republicans are CHRONICALLY wrong. It’s completely irrelevant what party is in power because they cannot change anything important.
But, why?
Regardless who is in the control, we are governed by the same system of values.
What system?
That’s the key problem, there is no guiding credo.
We are devoted to four different principles that are mutually contradictive and exclusive.
We are simultaneously the capitalists, the American patriots, the NATO members and the believers.
That’s why we repetitively change the course every morning and every afternoon.
The capital is looking for the highest profitability, thus investing heavily in China, India or Mexico. The patriotism is directing us to act in the best interest of America.
That’s why we have such a deep social polarization and animosity. The fellow citizens are adhering to the different priorities!
Of course, the military alliances and the faith are mutually exclusive too.
The former is directing us to fight on behalf of the foreigners. The latter is insisting on avoidance of the conflicts.
The military alliances have saddled us with confrontation with Russia and the Muslim world.
Now you know the truth.
1
Unfortunately Trump is not the only one who is betraying the Western alliance.
There is also the little matter of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pipeline.
1
If Europe is not happy with us I know we are doing something right. It really is that simple.
2
@Thor - I used to be somewhat shocked and surprised to read the simple thoughts of rightwing simpletons, but, sadly, no more. In the retrenched, hyper-nationalist, self-absorbed backwater that America has suddenly become under Mr. Trump, snark is worn like a badge of honor, and mindless remarks are made with a weird combination of arrogance, stupidity and paranoia.
2
However, the most disturbing fact is that Europe failed to stop us when we needed the help the most - when we were in the state of shock after the 9/11 attacks. At that moment we needed somebody calm, fully concentrated and sober to aid and advise us.
On the 9/11/2001 we were attacked by the terrorist group.
All of them were the Sunni Arabs, followers of the radical Wahhabism that originated in Saudi Arabia. The leaders and majority of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the ideology, financiers and recruiters.
Why would anybody believe that it could be defeated by invading Afghanistan, a non-Arab country?! No single Afghan citizen took a part in preparations for the terrorist attacks.
No wonder that we have been waging the Afghan war for almost 18 years without defeating the terrorist ideology.
The NATO equally failed to stop us from invading Iraq, a socialist country that was a natural obstacle to the spread of the radical theological ideology.
The European countries equally failed to stop us from destabilizing Libya and Syria, anther two socialist state. After we dethroned or destabilized the local regimes, both countries were overrun by the ISIS…
The true objective of any military alliance is to protect us from waging the devastating and unnecessary wars.
Something’s deadly wrong if we have been engaged in the endless wars.
8
American liberals looking to Europe for leadership in this new world need a reality check: the forces that elected Trump are already unleashed in Europe, a little behind the U.S., but potentially in a much more virulent form. Merkel's allies in Germany should be watching their backs for the German (or French) Trump. He's coming and it won't be pretty.
What would happen in 2019 if there was another intervention in Serbia, or if pro-Russian "activists" fomented a coup in one of the Baltic states? The world shudders to think. The parallels with 1914, another progressive time when nobody on any side wanted a war, are truly frightening.
7
@kgdickey When Americans look to their own president and see such an appalling lack of leadership, yes, we do look elsewhere for signs of it. We will continue to look to western Europe or any other region until real leadership one day comes back to our nation.
1
Would have be a triple to have Britain's May and France"s Macron to have followed Germany's Merkel in a follow up speech critiquing the donald's foreign policy. Attendees were much too polite in their silence toward Pence, this stunted little protege of trump should have been booed.
59
Trump is beholden to Putin and we all know this and we all know who sits in the Oval Office. Yes, it's Trump, but it's Putin who is running things and destroying this country step by step.
What is it that Putin owns Trump and most of the Senate? What is really going on? Will we ever find out?
Mr. Mueller when the lilacs in my now snow laden yard bloom will i know then?
39
I guess the Germans will have to develop their own ballistic missile program and nuclear deterrent, either alone or with other European partners like Poland or the Ukraine, which should take them all of about 12 months. Hopefully they won't engage with the Russians, again, and I'm sure, the Russians hope that won't be the case either.
4
Germany (and most of the EU) is dependent on Russian oil and gas. The US has given Europe no option but to make nice-ish with Putin if they are going to keep their houses warm and their lights on and tensions manageable. Without US overt support, Merkel and Macron have little defense against a neighbor that seems intent on strong arming and willing to sacrifice much to deflate the liberal democratic governments in the region.
16
“Going on one’s own,” Merkel suggested, makes no sense in a world demanding multilateral solutions."
Trump dumps on --NATO, G7--on and on. Trump's only ally is Russia. For him it's the Trump/US against THEM.
The US vs THEM dichotomy is a biologically deep rooted bias--love/help US; hate/harm THEM. It's the basis of all
competition--from predator/prey to reproduction, sports, business, politics and war (Darwin).
The political US/THEM evolves from family to tribe to village, town city, state, country and finally to International alliances of all sorts--the UN is the paradigm. Coincidentally it evolves from sticks and stones to nuclear weapons. The UN is just another Trumpie THEM.
Civilization replaces zero/sum competition with underlying
cooperation--agreements to compete according to rules--as in all games--and help for all losers. That's called "progress"--all progressives aim for it.
The Bush/Cheney bogus Iraq war was a precedent for Trump's entire foreign policy--including trade--"With us or against us!"
Authoritarian types can't get past zero/sum, win/lose. To Trump the world is prey. But so are Americans not named Trump.
15
There are only three plausible explanations that satisfactorily account for Trump’s behavior with the Russians:
He is in Putin’s pocket because of things that Putin knows about his finances, run for the Presidency or behavior with women.
He is mentally unbalanced.
Or a combination of the above.
It’s like a menu in a downscale Chinese restaurant.
You pick one from column A, one from column B and one from column C and fortune cookies and slices of an orange come free.
30
Instead of applause, Pence was met by stony silence by our European allies, when he touted President Trump’s leadership. Is this the respect for our nation that Trump claims to have restored around the world? Or does he mean the faux deference shown to him by the world’s leading autocrats China’s Xi Jinping, Egypt’s Abdel el-Sisi, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Poland’s Andrzej Duda, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman, and Turkey’s Recep Erdogan?
The Munich Security Conference might very well be the turning point in the post-WWII global order established by the west. Mr. Cohen is absolutely right in concluding, “it is the moment for Europe to reassert itself in the name of values it knows are not abstract, but the guarantors of human dignity and freedom.” So, even if Europe doesn’t warm up to an authoritarian China, it could actively pursue deeper economic ties and strategic security relationships (outside of NATO) with other vibrant democracies in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions.
25
First the UN General Assembly openly laughed at an address by Trump. Now European leaders show their views on Trump's America by their stony silence.
The German Chancellor received enthusiastic support for adhering to the international nuclear treaty with Iran.
Trump is continuing to isolate former allies, by his America first policy.
46
@Barry of Nambucca
The UN and Europeans should could make an even bigger statement. Stop accepting aid / money. Don't hold your breath.
I hope that Europe will take the lead for "human dignity and freedom." But it's likely that post-Merkel Germany will turn more nativist, and with Yellow Vests chanting anti-Semitic slogans, with continued bad behavior from Poland and Hungary, and now with Italy's populist convulsions, I'm not easily optimistic about this actually happening in any robust, sustained way.
14
The trump administration though their rhetoric, policies, unilateral decisions, and arrogance seems to be actively working to destroy the international respect that the United States has enjoyed in Europe for many years.
How else do you explain only one person clapping for VP Mike Pence's speech in a crowed international conference; and that person was the president's daughter.
This travelling tragedy is embarrassing to watch. I have no more words tonight to describe my sadness.
54
The USA would be better off without the NATO!
Why?
It makes us overconfident and full of hubris. Those two ingredients are the prerequisite for making the catastrophic mistakes.
I could guarantee you that without the NATO we wouldn’t have gotten involved into the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan or a couple of the Gulf Wars.
All those wars have failed to accomplish anything accept to saddle us with the catastrophic losses and costs.
The NATO didn’t help us defeat or contain the communism.
China is on track to become the world largest economy relatively soon with the political and economic influence exponentially growing all over the world .
5
I think a lot of this can be traced back to the self-delusional belief that many Americans have about being exceptional. In reality we are not. Very good consumers though, we got that going for us.
51
@James Griffin
Guess we're not exceptional. We only saved Europe and the world three times in the last century: WWI, WWII and the cold war. Cured polio and many other medical miracles, sent men to the moon, created the computer age and other technological innovation. Have the longest used constitution which is used as a model for others, have given more in aid and charity to other countries than any other country in history, etc, etc, etc
10
@Reader In Wash, DC
All things must pass.
All things are in the past.
And in particular regarding defeat of communism, Mt. Gorbachev was the risk taker. He had the guts to turn it.
3
@Reader In Wash, DC
I have long said that indeed America is an exceptional nation. However, there is no virtue in resting on past accomplishments when we have allowed an incompetent, foolish, greedy old man to assume the top leadership role in our government. We have to be responsible to the rest of the world when we make such a bad, bad mistake. I have many friends who travel internationally and it is plainly embarrassing to be American in much of the world now. All because of Trump, the GOP and his family of grifters.
2
"Europe to Mike Pence: No, Thank You."
Many here say the same thing. Mike Pence is the biggest reason why Trump will not be impeached.
44
Anyone who as governor could think it a "good thing" to sign into law legislation that makes discriminating against one's fellow man based solely on one's narrow interpretation of whatever religious text they hold most dire...will never surprise me with their twisted vision of a new world order.
22
"“Going on one’s own,” Merkel suggested, makes no sense in a world demanding multilateral solutions.""
A clear majority of Americans stand united with Merkel and our European allies, not with Trump, not with Pence, not with McConnell.
78
Trump has certainly placated Putin enough to keep him from disclosing the obvious kompromat he has held over Trump as he knows about every illicit deal Trump has done with Russians. THis disclosure would end Trump's presidency ,cost his family a fortune and put Trump and family members at risk of criminal prosecution. That is a lot of motivation and if Putin told Trump in one of their "private meetings" that the price of silence was to withdraw USA from NATO ,Trump who values his well being among all else does have bone spurs on his morals would eventually comply. Our allies in Europe know this from intel intercepts it seems.
20
Trump doesn't have a foreign policy. He doesn't know enough about Syria, Iran, or NATO to have an opinion. He's executing his side of his agreements with Putin, hashed out in secret meetings in Helsinki, Argentina and elsewhere. There's a reason Trump doesn't want these meetings transcribed or witnessed.
Immediately after Helsinki, Russia complained that the U.S. military wasn't carrying out its side of the "agreement" in Helsinki. Months later, Trump announces that he's withdrawing all U.S. troops from Syria, leaving the country in Russia's hands. We don't hear Moscow complaining because the "agreement" is being honored.
One of Putin's biggest goals is the destruction of NATO, which would effectively happen if the U.S. withdrew. If NATO no longer existed as a credible deterrent, Putin is likely to invade former bloc countries like Ukraine. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since another goal of his is to expand Russia's territorial boundaries to their former glory.
None of Trump's goals were designed to benefit the United States, so we're looking at it through the wrong lens. Sure, he pulls in his followers with promises of America First, but does anyone believe the American Bundt's true agenda was to protect American sovereignty?
20
Nice try, Mr. Cohen. But the ruling elites in Europe are not right about everything they espouse.
9
@Eva
Neither are the ruling elites here, or in the White House
1
A number of commenters here still seem to suffer from the Fox-News-induced delusion that the US has been protecting and defending Europe and that Europe should thus be grateful and "pay its fair share." That is of course complete rubbish.
The US has been defending nothing but its own political and economic interests in Europe and instrumentalizing Europe to do its bidding elsewhere for many decades, since long before Trump. It's always been America first in that regard. But we used to disguise our interests with goodwill and diplomacy. Since Trump has laid open our cards, he's given the Europeans the opportunity to call our bluff and bust the silly myth of European dependency. Why should anyone be surprised at that? The Europeans, Chinese and Russians are handily beating us at our own game while America shrinks into itself like a scared hedgehog.
27
I wish I were not too old, with too many family ties, to move to Europe.
29
The leaders of China and Russia know what their strategic goals are. Trump and his family may have had a business plan, but the reality of being the so called leader of the free world intervened. He hasn’t a clue what policies to implement for our nation, and or Trump, Inc.
12
@Asher Fried
And, Trump doesn't care about America anyway. He very likely would ruin EVERYTHING and he is well on his way and he will just call it another "bankruptcy" and go play golf. The man does not care about anyone else. Period.
2
Chancellor Merkel, at the end of her remarks, put the central question from history, not just for international relations, but for relations generally. are we better off working together or working each for his or her own interests? Her clear answer: cooperation. Trump's answer: transactional selfishness. The answer of our Constitution is (was?) a more perfect Union. Trump--not alone--has put our union at risk and challenges worldwide all who would work together.
23
Excellent and succinct. Thanks for clarifying my thoughts on the matter.
18
It strikes me how helpless Europe seems to be in the face of US bullying. Yes, there is widespread indignation, outrage, and mockery directed at the Trump administration. However, in a high-quality German newspaper, I frequently read comments saying that we Europeans simply do not have the option of breaking away from the US. That we have no choice but to weather the four years of Trump, build bonds with those American politicians who now seem reasonable in comparison, and hope for their good will.
It's the good old hoping and praying that the US will continue to care about us and defend us. That the current and future US administrations will not drag us into too many of their, not our, wars of conquest. This undignified show of submission has been going on since I grew old enough to be nterested in watching the news (around 9/11), and the Trump administration has forcefully blown away my last bit of acceptance for it.
Should it not be possible for a highly-skilled, technologically advanced, and extremely wealthy population of 500 millions to stand on its own feet in every way, economically, politically, militarily? Time to stop whining and get to work. We may have the moral high ground, but that is not good enough.
13
@Andreas, the United States isn't a monolith. Those of us in the majority who oppose Trump also often feel as though we're just along for the ride, with no ability to affect the madness. (That's changed somewhat with the 2018 elections.) I felt the same way when Bush decided to invade Iraq. As the resident of a blue state, I don't think we're making an undignified show of submission so much as trying to steer the country back to sanity. I don't believe in submission, but I do believe in alliances based on shared democratic values. Trump and Putin don't have those values, but there are plenty of us who do.
20
Looks as though The Plan is to make the EU stronger, create greater international ties (China, Russia, Africa) both political and trade, while at the same time destroy the bonds that have allowed the Western world to prosper.
This leaves the US in a terrible position of isolation, having proven itself unworthy of trust.
All self inflicted bu the US.
Hello Europe.
Goodbye USA.
30
I'm glad the Europeans are finally finding their own strength. We are in a new world order.
13
It's getting scary, isn't it. I'm reminded of my grandfather's generation (he was born in 1892) during the mid-'30s, telling themselves "Surely it can't happen again!", even as it was already happening in Asia. And it did happen again, capping off "The Bloody 20th" century.
Hardly anyone in Western Europe believes the U.S. would fulfill its NATO role should war break out again along the Oder-Neisse. They don't trust Trump any more than a majority of Americans do.
Germany is the main force in NATO after America's exit-non-exit. Would Germany lead NATO against the Russian Federation in defense of Poland and the Baltic states? Which way is Poland leaning now? How about Ukraine? Belarus?
Trump can't seem to speak with more than one person at a time, except at frenzied rally crowds. He hates multilateralism because there are too many players on the board and it's all he can do to control even one of them, except for the President of Montenegro, briefly.
"So long as there are men, there will be wars." - Albert Einstein -
Sadly, I believe that's true. And if it is, what becomes of the nation that tries to go it alone in today's shrunken world where even oceans don't count for much?
15
If there is a vacuum, then Europe needs to step up and fill it. Threatening to play footsie with Russia seems an odd way to do it. I'm sure irony will be lost on Trump haters.
Since Trump started heckling Europe, NATO nations have ponied up an additional equivalent of $100Billion. Macron has even floated the idea of creating a Euro Defense Force. To which I say, it's about time. Europhiles this side of the Atlantic love to extol the virtues of the Europeans, as if there is some broader sophistication lurking over there that puts the US to shame.
But there really is not. The European Union is a hodgepodge of bureaucratic (and undemocratic) malaise, run by the two or three top economies. Number one is Germany. Merkel is facing her own political storm over, among other things, her nearly unilateral declarations on immigration and refugee policy. Her overt jabbing at the US (and Trump) is a straw man tactic, intended to garner home-front support from a population long on petty distrust mixed with envy of the US (the same crowd that swooned over Joe Biden's deprecating, none-too statesmanlike mudslinging at his own country).
The EU is one of the top economic powers on the planet. It's time it acted accordingly.
2
The irony is in your implicitly noticing that the European Union is strong. It is so because of the Union of it. With whom are we unified now? Hmm?
14
@BL The notion that the US and Europe are not allies anymore, or on the verge of going separate ways, is a crock. Despite "experts' " early protestations to the contrary, for example, the US hasn't pulled out of NATO, nor has it reneged on any of its responsibilities. Many of the "differences" the EU are rioting about aren't enough to break the pact.
I differ with you on the strength of the EU. BREXIT has shown how desperate the EU is to keep Britain in. Claude Juncker isn't playing hardball with Britain over the separation because he's OK with it all; he sees it as a real threat to EU unity and economic integrity. At the same time, other EU member nations are rejecting Brussels' heavy hand in their politics and domestic sovereignty.
The EU is in trouble. The US can't (and shouldn't) be required to save it in its current configuration. I applaud the president for making a few necessary points about the EU, and NATO. That the EU is agitated by it all is a good thing. If they decide, in all their wisdom, that buddying up with Putin is preferable or even necessary in the absence of US coddling, says a lot about the EU. Namely, it needs a new direction.
5
The German's were forced to answer the following question: What are the risks in aligning their country with a US administration that is not trustworthy? The US lost the trust of many European countries when, for purely political reasons, it decided to disregard its own signature on an international treaty. Furthermore, if the US has to be the "winner" in every transaction and the other side to be the "loser", what is the point in dealing with the US?
37
This mischaracterizes Germany of the past.
Willy Brandt had a relationship with the Soviets that upset the Americans, starting in 1969. Brandt called it "Ostpolitik." He was rebelling against the American confrontation with the Soviets. The most controversial agreement was the Basic Treaty of 1972 with East Germany, establishing formal relations between the two German states for the first time since partition.
This is not that much different from the independent German course regarding American confrontation with Iran.
Germany has done this before, and American hawks were horrified before.
What we can learn from this is that the Germans were right the last time, and may be right again.
12
"Europeans are not where Lavrov and Russia want them to be — thirsting to build a “shared European house”... They are, however, wondering how best to project the free world’s values now that its leader has gone AWOL; thinking hard about how to reinforce European defense..."
In other words, the conference was an immense success. For the first time since WWII the Europeans are collectively coming to affirmative terms with what they actually stand for -- not just being pampered passive clients of the American empire. Angela Merkel certainly seemed to be genuinely inspired by an opportunity for renewed relevance. How can that be a bad thing? She is surely one of the few talented leaders still on the world stage. If the old "leader of the free world" Cold War chestnut still has any vitality, it is in the context of Merkel's continued influence on global affairs.
The timing for this reassessment was fortuitous. The EU's halfway institutional existence must either continue forward or step back, and the headache of Britain's imperial hangover and resultant sense of exceptionalism needs to be remedied.
Europe's open and slightly raucous contempt for Trump and his trained poodle Pence was a delight to behold. It not only betokened a newly assertive state of mind but also (don't tell anybody!) an emerging giddy recognition that the Trump regime will likely prove a passing fancy. The pain of breaking up with America may only be exceeded by the ecstasy of reunion after Trump departs.
14
@woofer Wonderful assessment! Post trump transnational connubial bliss to look forward to.
2
Exactly where are we, the US, headed? Into the circling arms of Russia, China, North Korea? So, t-Rump the genius has shunned all of our allies to hold hands with our enemies of years past. Then, to add frosting on the cake, he just may take a rifle to South America. Why not stir up the whole pot. We should be afraid. Very afraid. With Miller, Pompeo, and Bolton leading the charge and pastor pence cleaning up the offal, tis quite a parade of frightening people.
26
Unfortunately our country has a history of embracing ignorance while rejecting reason, science, and the teaching of critical thinking. The causes are most often religious belief and an unshakeable anti-intellectual bent that has always plagued our nation. In the modern era at least, the worst of those qualities didn't much impact the function of the highest levels government. That began to end with the Republicans started courting the Religious Right and small-minded bigots, eventually growing to rely on that segment to win every election. Our nation is headed toward a third-world status due to our love of ignorance, aversion to educating ourselves, and our delusional egotism.
11
The student of International Relations in me weeps for this great undoing. The American in me is enraged. And the human me? Simply dumbfounded.
22
The tide has turned. A man who bragged about grabbing women has been emasculated by powerful women in a span of just a few weeks- by Nancy Pelosi on the US domestic front and by Angela Merkel on the international stage. All that Trump can do is be a Twitter troll with lame tweets. Larger than life personalities like Kennedy and Reagan whose roars resonated in Germany in 1960s and 1980s respectively in defiance of Russia are replaced by meek and mealy mouth representation in Munich by Pense. The US leadership of the world is being unceremoniously surrendered.
20
" when the BMW plant in South Carolina is the company’s biggest."
Then here's the way Germany gets the attention of the US regarding trade and global climate change: refuse to sell any goods to the US.
That's right refuse to sell BMWs and whatever Krupps or Keurig gadgets they are selling to the US.
After all, making a profit from selling to the US is making a profit from our large carbon footprint lifestyles. Actually it's immoral.
What do you say there Angela?
1
@Jp
Sellers need buyers. Buyers don't need sellers.
3
@Reader In Wash, DC:
Just watching our for that moral high ground Angela thinks she occupies.
You know that 5 or 10 years from now many areas that are going to experience extreme impact (even more extreme than today) due to climate change will point their fingers at the US. Well there's a lot of wealth generated by commerce with our fossil fuel based economy. Wealth that is flowing off sore due to imports and off-shored manufacturing. Let's see how those economies ante up towards paying off the damage.
I wonder if Germany will say: "We didn't know!"
2
@Reader In Wash, DC
Economics 101. They both need each other.
2
Trump and Pence are who they are. Having them in power is a symptom, not the illness. What scares me is all the other dudes around them enabling them and voting for them. When they do things like this, standing up on the world stage talking rubbish, it's all for Fox News and their followers, not because they actually believe it. Well, that's true of Trump, Pence might actually believe it all. I'm not sure which option is more scary.
23
How LAUGHABLE to call the Europeans allies. They are DEPENDENTS. For over a century: WWI, Lead-lease, WWII, Marshall Plan, Cold War, NATO it has been a one way flow of lives and money, money and more money from the US to Europe. Time for the Europeans to start pulling their weight and pay for their own defense.
7
@Reader In Wash, DC
I totally disagree with your description of the relationship between the U.S. and our European allies, because I totally disagree with this president's tendency to label important trans-Atlantic organizations like NATO as obsolete.
In the short time since Trump has been in office, he has not only made a mockery of this country on the world stage, but a mockery of his Democracy as well.
22
@N. Smith
The Europeans are not allies. They are dependents.
4
A lot of hogwash. But what to expect from the ignorant corner of our nation? The US military is in Europe not because Europe asked for it, but because the US used its WW2 win to project is power around the globe. As US Generals if they would give up Ramstein airbase voluntarily and they all will revolt.
The US wants to continue its power politics, just have others pay us as hired guns. Cause Trump thinks in dollars only with that minuscule brain this ogre has.
1
Oh my, whose side are your American readers on? The Germans are upset that they were finally asked to pay their fair share for their own defense. And, with their massive trade surpluses, they can afford it.
9
No - the trump admin wants to collect protection money from those it pretends asked for protection, when the world order was build by the US for US corporate interests, no questions asked.
But US corps abandoned pax anericana for wallstreet globalism - except that military contractors are still great business with overpaying tenfold being the norm.
3
Pence's speech: "The overall effect was B-movie bizarre and offensive." Sounds like this was just another normal day for the sycophant-in-chief, who is studiously training to lie, cheat, and deceive just like the man he claims to serve. Is there anything Donald Trump will say or do that will actually force Pence to act like the Christian he claims to be? Somehow I doubt it.
17
Laughable that no one who prepped Pence would not have warned the Veep he shouldn’t wait for crowd applause after intoning his “greetings from President Trump” line. Instead, the crickets that ensued underscored how much the world can’t stand the current US president. After all, he’s treated them shabbily for the past two years. Plus, they’re not stupid: they understand Trump is as good as a foreign agent in plain sight, based on his openly brazen uber-affection for the Russians whom he trusts more than his own intel agencies or anyone else. Helsinki took care of any doubts along those lines. It’s hard for most people to respect someone who takes an oath to protect the US Constitution, and then works to undermine it day-in, day-out. If you’re not honorable, you can’t expect treatment any different than what was on display in Munich, even if Ivanka sits attractively in a middle row.
19
All those on the left in the US including Nancy Pelosi who wanted to go to Brussels to "assure" our "allies" don't need to worry. The Europeans will be glad to continue to let the US provide their defense as we have been doing for over a century: WWI, Lend-Lease, WWII, NATO, Cold War. Europeans do worry the one way flow of lives and money from the US to Europe might end.
6
@Reader In Wash, DC
Hungh, but what are you going to do the next time a Republican autocrat needs cover for one of the GOP’s wars of aggression? Where are you going to find the allies necessary to lend legitimacy to its naked power grabs? Our loss of prestige on the world stage will be as costly an error as W’s trumped up war against Iraq. Hopefully, the world will survive this blunder even if the U.S., in its current form, doesn’t.
8
The reaction to Pence’s speech revealed what Trump’s base and the Republicans refuse to see. Trump and Pence do not DESERVE applause. The world sees that our leader is a corrupt wannabe dictator who thrives on disruption. They have watched his two-year rampage which has resulted in isolation, alienation, and faux-superiority. Trump does not play well with others. I admire the restraint of the audience. The next speech (if there is one) will get boos.
What took decades to build, took one man and his sychophantic followers two years to destroy. I don’t think our country will ever be fully trusted again.
27
@Kathryn
Trump is president of the US not the world. Europeans are scared to death of having to pay for their defense themselves.
1
We are seing on the international stage the consequences of the President Trump lies. Trust is gone. The German chancellor Merkel and the Germans are compared to de Gaulle. The difference is that de Gaulle had his disagreement with the Americans but always trust them. During the Cuban missiles crisis, President Kennedy send Dean Acheson to brief the French President on October 22, 1962. When Dean Acheson offered to de Gaulle to see the pictures, de Gaulle answered: "A great nation such as yours would not take such a serious step if there was any doubt. I need no such evidence. For our purposes, the missiles are there." Then Acheson rephrased the offer: "Would the general as a military man care to look at the photograph to see the advancement that has been made in aerial reconnaissance?" Then as a military man De Gaulle seen the pictures but as French President de Gaulle refused to see them. Why? Because he trusted the Americans and President Kennedy. The German chancellor Merkel obviously does not trusted President Trump
Also Vice President Pence said that if you do not support the sanction against Iran you are anti-Semite. In the last mid-term elections a few anti-Semite ran in Republican primaries and some won. (Fortunately none of them were elected to Congress and repudiate by the Republican leaderships.)President Trump said that the anti-Semite and holocaust deniers were "fine people". So may be Vice President Pence should cleaned his own party.
8
John Grisham on current US politics during the recent interview :
.... “the one word that comes to mind every day is embarrassing. It is just embarrassing that we are in this position in this country,” adding “it’s our fault; we’ll get out of it one way or another.”
Utterly true.
16
Vice President Pence must have read his prepared speech extolling the virtues of President Trump and his separatist policies with approval. The international community has been chastised and our allies now respond. We are isolated by our know nothing president and his sycophantic administration. The Senate has abdicated its responsibility to the nation.
Bully speeches to our allies and fawning to Russia are the new norm. Are the Trump supporters paying attention to the foreign policy? Do they care what is happening in the rest of the world as they put"America First"?
12
Putin couldn’t ask for more from Trump and his minions... Trump and Pence truly is the gift that keeps on giving from the Russian point of view. Ironic that while trump supporters are often seen waving the American flag and see themselves as being patriotic, their actions are enabling trump to do more to damage the country than by any US leader in history.
14
Ivanka and Jared in the audience. Why? I'm just so tired of those pampered, smug little know-nothings. Maybe Pence needed friendly faces to grin at when the bracing silence smacked his own. I figure at this point the Europeans are just waiting for the next election cycle in the US, working on problems of their own, and hoping Trump doesn't invade Iran.
27
Both Mr Pence and his master, Mr Trump are traitors to the US Constitution and to the best interests and safety of the United States. Abandoning our oldest and best allies for Russia and Saudi Arabia is not a wise strategic move. Mr. Cohen’s advise is sound and correct. Removal of this administration, in it’s entirety, is the only sane and sound course of action.
15
We have to rethink automatically calling the serving US president the 'leader of the free world'. Right now, no one in Europe is following Donald Trump. Quite the reverse.
12
The robotic Pence must be the weirdest, idiosyncratic politician on our national stage in a long time, perhaps even surpassing the strange and darkly brooding Nixon. One can imagine him coolly, calmly, self-righteously taking some catastrophic action if given the opportunity. He better not get even close to our nuclear codes. This is someone to worry about.
14
He was certainly more animated when he had his conservative radio show in which he railed against LGBT people and pushed his brand of Dominionist Evangelism.
2
The EU is in a tight spot militarily. They have to move quickly and not depend on our 2020 elections for a reasonable semblance of normality to return to US foreign policy. Putin is dangerous and might be tempted use the current situation to try some sort of power grab. The EU has to, at least, to set up a nuclear deterrent plan of its own. Politically this will be very difficult, given European history. Cozying up to Russia would be a big mistake, at least until they have some credible deterrent.
164
@James F Traynor France has an independent nuclear deterant and capability. UK has nukes in its subs, although technically I think it needs some sign off from us. Certainly the Russian are far more supllied with nukes but UK and France have enough power to hit every major city in European Russia.
50
@James F Traynor
"The EU is in a tight spot militarily."
Only if you anticipate war. While I'm sure Putin has grand plans for Europe I'm also sure that it's more in terms of wily dealings/monetary gains and not a destructive WW2-like takeover. The latter is simply too bothersome when you can get what you want in much more sophisticated ways.
One of the ways, btw, is to start an arms race and reap the monetary benefits on the back-end yourself from the increased sales.
38
@James F Traynor, I think there's no doubt that Putin will attempt military invasions of the Baltic countries and Ukraine if he thinks NATO is weak enough. He's intent on expanding Russia's territorial boundaries, not just its influence. I don't think Germany or the EU is cozying up to Russia--they know how dangerous Putin is. These robust defenses of NATO are exactly what Putin doesn't want to hear. You're correct that they're reassessing how to respond to a world where the U.S. no longer guarantees their safety. Trump's withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Treaty was critical.
54
Reading Cohen and the comments here, and thinking about recent history, I guess I'm a little surprised that some are surprised. In my adult life, under Nixon and Kissinger we prolonged, spread and then lost an unnecessary war in Southeast Asia, at incredible cost all around; under Reagan we heroically conquered Grenada, abandoned Lebanon and Palestinian refugee camps to the depredation of Sharon and Israel, and supplied arms to and then covered up the atrocities of brutal militarists in Central America, Argentina and Chile (among others); under Bush I we abandoned the Kurds and swamp Arab allies to massacres in Iraq, and staged another heroic invasion of Panama; and under Bush II... where to begin?
So I keep reading about our great triumphs in foreign policy, the "Pax Americana", and how respected we have been internationally for our wisdom and generosity. Who are we kidding? As far as I can see only ourselves.
1000
@Xun Krinko,
Of course, what we're "respected" for is our deep pockets, our willingness to shovel money at warlords and dictators without asking awkward questions. Like why is all this "aid" money winding up in Swiss banks?
And, of course, this is what Trump wants to change. Much as I despise the man I have to admit he's right about that.
15
@Xun Krinko Indeed so far we mostly left destruction and little peace in our path.
48
@Xun Krinko,
okay, lets take a lack of sound foreign policy as a starting point. Then consider that, whatever it is we did then, what we are doing now is even worse. Either way this is truly sobering.
78
I watched Pence's address to the group on TV. At the end of a sentence, our VP stopped for a moment, expecting applause. Instead of approbation, he got a stony silence - not a single person clapped. Never in my life did I expect to see the day when the leaders of the world would so starkly rebuke the American leadership. It's a shame how far Mr. Trump's administration has caused us to fall in the eyes of the world. 2020 can't come soon enough.
2820
@Bill McGrath
When only one hand claps the result is just the "sound of silence" Silence can say more than words ever can.
I don't think Mr. Pence knew what to do at that point because as an experienced speaker, he knew clearly that what he was saying was not getting the response he was expecting.
245
@Bill McGrath
Making America grate again.
364
@Bill McGrath
The positions Pence put forth were and are shocking enough, but to think he expected applause after such a diatribe is shocking as well.
Here's hoping Europe sets a humane example as it goes its own way, unyoked from us. Maybe they'll teach us a thing or two.
457
As a citizen of the misbegotten United States, I take great comfort in the aspiration and dedication to multilateralism to promote peace, as the European Union labors to do. What a contrast to this reader; a bellicose, militarist United States, and the EU, a calm, technocratic and intellectual approach to the world’s problems. For my country, only shame. For the European Union, I offer praise and respect.
712
@Richard Steele
The European Union is mask. Each European nation wears it as a cover to their nationalistic interests.
6
@Mark Shyres
It sounds as though you're describing the United States.
72
@Richard Steele
The EU needs to (and I only very rarely use the words "need to) become far better at promoting themselves to their constituents. Most of the populations have only the foggiest idea of what the EU is and does for them.
And that's a shame, because it really is a more enlightened and mature way of looking at the world and how to solve the world's problems. And the "calm, technocratic and intellectual approach" you mention they have is a strong indicator that the EU will not stray too far in any one direction that can be detrimental to its people.
51
Europe turning to Russia? Just a look at the trade balance puts this idea in a different perspective. What is happening is the end of the economical American imperialism. US companies were fiscally helped in investing abroad - this is over. The US was funding NATO more so than our allies - despite previous agreements and in order to protect them. This is over. Granted Trump is brutal - to say the least. He is lacking the political correctness that we love and appreciate so much. But in many things he is right.
42
@Jeff Stront
There problem with your thesis and Trump is there is little fact behind what you say. US companies were fiscally helped in investing abroad? There is some truth to that (like the nice GOP congress keeping tax credits for each worker they sent overseas), but what you leave out is that doesn't really matter; first of all, that there is no such thing as a "US corporation" any more, they are stateless, global industries; more importantly, US companies invested overseas because the stock market drove them to do that, unless Trump plans on making shareholder management unattractive, companies are going to continue to look for cheaper ways to produce, whether third world countries or automation, both of which are going to get rid of jobs.
83
@Jeff Stront Funding our NATO allies was and is to protect this county, the USA. Why? - to avoid a war on our continent. If another war needs fighting - and it appears likely - then the purpose of US aid to NATO is to attempt to assure the war is, once again, fought "over there" and not here.
80
@Jeff Stront: Trump is "right" two times fewer than a broken clock.
126
No one in this administration should be surprised. It remains true that if you want to be admired, then do something admirable. From the European perspective, what has Trump done that is admirable?
10
Trump, in his, wisdom (sarcasm), and with his very wise, the best wise men he could hire, advisors, you know, Jared, Miller and Bolton, abdicated our, this country's seat at the global table, and what this country enjoyed for some time-leader of the free world, due to Trump's very narrow and possibly uneducated view of world events (you can't learn world events watching the comedians on Fox "News").
It is sad that now our soon to be former partners are becoming "Gaullists" and are willing to cast Trump, and this country, aside. And rightfully so. Trump cannot be trusted as his decision making is quite flawed.
As Trump finishes making enemies, including our neighbors to the immediate north and south, who can we rely on as partners?
Pence demands the international community bend to Trump's wishes concerning Iran. We saw how well that went.
It appears that Trump has no respect, including his BFF Putin, has little to say that will assuage the European community, and will be ignored, unless Trump starts a war somewhere to further distract from his foibles, and failures.
But, his adoring fans will still see Trump as the person who put those pesky Europeans in their place-when the opposite will be true in time.
Yup. The winning.
9
Just imagine how many people who were on the fence about voting republican or Democrat for president have their minds made up to never go GOP again, ever.
Those who didn’t learn from Nixon, or Reagan, or papa bush and especially the Iraq-mission-accomplished-bush have their minds clear now.
I can’t wait for the next huge blue title wave in 2020.
I think Americans have woken up to what happens when you think there is no difference between voting in the republicans or the democrats. I pray we survive this lesson to start corrections.
And yes, it is a pity the UK can’t redo a Brexit vote.
11
@Manderine
Trump policy is popular outside of Manhattan and California.
The ruling elite in America and the European Union including Great Britain have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. They did not believe the polls before the Brexit vote and have done everything possible to make the breakup as bloody as possible
This is similar to the Democrat ruling elite working to undo the election of Trump. The masses did not agree with them, so they pretend the election did not happen.
Trump's America First policy alienates our closest allies and so it's self-defeating. Overall, his foreign policy is jingoistic and lacks a serious strategic foundation. It is foreign policy light.
Myself, I take Trump's foreign policy with a large grain of salt. We are more isolated in Europe and the Middle East than ever. And our dealings with North Korea are nothing short of bizarre. And I can make little sense of Trump's policies toward Russia and China.
First, we had Buchanan, then we got around to the business of the Civil War. First, we had Hoover, and then we got around to the New Deal. I consider Trump one of those interim presidents, and when we git rid of him we'll attend to the business at hand, which Trump has delayed to no avail. My guess is that Merkel and most of the EU get it, and are biding time until American foreign policy returns to its fundamental principles.
6
I am heartened that EU repulsed Trump's messenger Pence. It is galling to me that Trump and Pence have the impudence to represent America in the face of protest from Americans who truly value character, principle, and love of country. EU would be well-advised to continue to keep Trump and Pence at arm's length. If they have the guts to do that then I am confident that they would also have whatever it takes to manage Putin and China.
30
Good foreign policy makes and helps keep friends, and leads to allies, free trade, and economic growth. Bad foreign policy loses friends, creates enemies where often there were none, forces tariffs, and has helped drive the world economy from local recession into world depression and an upsurge of totalitarianism. True in 1927-40. Becoming true again today? Looks like.
23
People left England, and a king, for freedom and self-rule.
What comes around, goes around, . . . and now the US has an internal threat with external influence.
14
The President and his administration are only attempting to simplify America's foreign policy. We won't have to keep two lists of our relations to other nations. Given enough time the President will make enemies of all our allies. Pre-Trump enemies will continue to play his administration and delight in the results of their mischief. Their work will only be complete when America is a lonely outlier and Trump, the perfect vessel, is installed for a second term.
10
Trump will be gone in six months - I hope.
@richard wiesner Aren't you frightened? An American dictatorship lead by people with Trump values are not something I relish living next door to.
1
Chancellor Merkel thinks the Syrian issue is so dangerous that NATO must keep British, French, and US troops there but not serious enough to justify German troops or Germany's actual support of NATO even to the amount it has agreed to. How convenient.
11
@whouck The amount Germany (and the EU) has agreed to put into NATO, as you put it, is 2% of the GPD by 2024. In 5 years. Working on it. That's the agreement. I find it super frustrating that the US government and media still can't get these simple facts straight.
3
@David Mann
You conveniently fail to mention the many years of Germany's failing to pay their share and point to a promise for 2024. Does "working on it" justify the five more years of freeloading? And why should anyone be confident Germany will meet this new commitment?
2
@whouck, Germany sent troops to Syria in 2015. Like British and French troops, they're under NATO command. Germany also has troops in Afghanistan. Are you believing what Trump tells you?
1
Europe and Britain should make a U-turn on Brexit and reaffirm their commitment to a unified block. We have 2 years to make a U-turn on Trumpism and the GOP.
51
Trump has managed in just two years to reset the course of history back to the days of the Weimar Republic. Pretty soon his slogan will be Make America Meaningless Again. I hope he is proud of this upcoming change. If history has taught us one thing its that that isolationism is a fast track to obscurity.
60
@Indy1 I recall from a history class I took in college, both periods before the two world wars were marked by the United States being isolationist. Obviously not the only cause of both, but in that history class is was noted as a contributing factor. That aspect of history was remembered and avoided to guide the policies pursued after WWII.
8
@Indy1:
Unfortunately, his supporters seem to love being alone (tired of helping other countries out, etc.). As I have said over and over, this world is too connected to be an isolationist. Everyone relies on everyone else, every economy relies on every other economy.
3
It's probably not so much a case of Germans trusting Vladimir Putin's Russia more than Trump's United States, as just them knowing where they stand with Putin. Like him or not, Putin is at least consistent. Trump, however, barely knows where he stands himself on just about any issue, or even what most of the issues really are, unless he's seen something on TV during his morning 'me' time.
61
“As the memory of World War II, the Holocaust and the Gulag fades, so too does the antipathy to the illiberal ideologies that spawned Europe’s past horrors.
This is evidenced in the rising electoral success of populist authoritarian parties of the extreme left and right, none of which have anything new to say, yet claim the mantle of ideological innovation and moral virtue.” James Kirchick, “The End of Europe”
35
@HapinOregon
I absolutely agree with you. Would also add that the isolationism and xenophobic nationalism emerging here and in Europe recall the forces that set the stage for World War I. "Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it." And God knows, Trump is truly ignorant. But it may be more than just his willful ignorance. It may be that there are discs lying in a vault somewhere in Moscow that have given Putin leverage to turn Trump into his own personal saboteur, vandalizing agreements and alliances that have helped prevent a third world war for over 70 years, and that might help us save the earth for future generations.
I am embarrassed by our country's leaders.
I am revolted by their use of Judaism, even more, their use of Auschwitz, for their political interest.
As a Jewish person myself, I cannot forget the "fine people on both sides", as well as inauguration night when a group of Trump supporters were doing Nazi salutes a restaurant near me in DC.
But please, leave Auschwitz out of the American politics.If not for the world, at least as a show of respect for the suffering and death that happened within those fences.
325
@Lili B
Just for the record. Jews weren't the only group maligned with Trump's "fine people on both sides comment".
Just like incidents of racist attacks, or politicians parading around in Blackface hasn't abated either.
Don't think for a minute that you're alone in this, racism against Blacks has never stopped in America.
5
Pence is creepy-smarmy—the usher in church who helps hide the money from the folks who buy the donuts so the minister can have it all.
166
Agree. Maybe one day we will learn who he really is. It is not what he says he is.
14
@David - I think a lot of those superior ultra-religious types (doesn’t matter which religion) are tamping down something in themselves that is twisted and ugly. Pence is one of those guys. And, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
7
@Sue - well, Sue. I sure hope he’s not in office when we find out!
3
Well the people of Europe see a traitor in the White House who can’t let an opportunity go by without an insult.
What they see and believe is true at this point in time America is not to be trusted. Trump is a hater along with the GOP and has done nothing but be an uneducated bully to Europe.
They said enough of your lies and hate we have moved on from the backwardness of Americans because we are moving into the light vs the darkness of Trump.
73
Is Ms. Merkel the only one with spirit and character to put him in his place?
Too bad she's leaving...more voices like her are needed now.
What I don't understand is how the whole world displays such a failure of principals, and fearfulness...
Why politicians are afraid of his pathetic insults, when they should be laughing at his face and mockingly ignore him.
Trying to flatter him, being obsequious is not the way to treat him, in fact it would only embolden his moronic and dangerous behavior.
Why would anyone fear him?
You don't have to be a hero to stand up to a big vulgar, ignorant bully and his sycophantic gang.
Leaders should be leaders, role model for the people who elected them, not a spineless wimps.
He is in a WH to accomplish Putin's agenda to destabilized Europe, so Putin can gain more trust on European continent, as well as China and continue as he please to invade sovereign countries while the world is watching.
Russians do have a full dossier/kompromat on him that what they do at KGB now FSB, they can collect damaging information about a politician, a businessperson, or other public figure, to create negative publicity, also for blackmail and extortion. There is no day light between these two, they're both ruffians.
He proved to be an obedient apprentice/lap dog
in executing Putin's vision of the world domination, we're just sitting witnesses, helplessly observing the normal order of universe going in flames.
64
Had a chuckle at the comment about Pence doing penance for a kiss from Ivanka.
74
Pence has the diplomatic finesse of a trained seal. Ivanka -- really, what credentials does a handbag manufacturer bring to this role? America as ignorant defender of dictators and fascists, critics of our oldest and staunchest friends in democracy. It's just sad.
226
@drindl
Ivanka is not a manufacturer of anything. If she was, she would have an Artisan spirit and sensibility.
She is a profiteer of what once was a marketable Family name.
Soon, she will age like everyone else, and the Family name is already squandered....and that will be left is infamy and ridicule.
Get ready Ivanka and Jared, the next act gets even worse.
28
When a dictatorship is realized, revolution is required.
42
What do Pence and Graham have in common? They have no spine and are terrified of Trump. Trump came to Washington and discovered that the republicans were more corrupt than organized crime, big banks too big to fail, and the Wall Street folks, actually one and the same. It was easy pickings and he took control of the swamp and the dumbest among us. Now he's trashing everything that we hold dear and keeps us safe. It's become obvious that we can't afford to have him in the presidency another day, much less 2 more years.
69
@Wally Wolf But Pence as the successor?
Post WW2 the alliance among the USA and the world’s liberal democracies kept order. Although I get the feeling people are bored & think we have reached an end of history moment & thus breaking alliances doesn’t matter. Ask Tucker Carlson about NATO & he will question its existence because the Cold War is over & if there is a chance to save money via pulling back on alliances, then USA should take it. Tucker Carlson also asked why the USA should defend Latvia in the case of Russian aggression. The answer is to protect a smaller democracy from an aggressor state & make it clear to bully’s in the world such behavior will not be tolerated. Tucker would rather leave the Latvians to their own devices & futile attempts to defend themselves against a much bigger aggressor. Some people are bored of the post WW2 order & don’t see any value in keeping it, they hate globalization, integrated economies & the commitment & sacrifice that go with multilateral agreements. The Trump doctrine wants to isolate America, disengage from strategic regions & pull support for liberal democratic values. He is upending 70 years of bipartisan foreign policy without being informed or knowing stuff. If this foreign policy takes root, it will make the next decades much more dangerous. Although I feel he will be gone in 2 years & normal order resumed under President Harris or Biden
28
Thank you Adam for fighting the good fight. You remind me of the lads of Kokoda. I try to convince my fellow Americans with the view you mention that there was a deal made at the end of WW2 that established a world order that then kept the peace for 70+ years. We have to work through this period. We will do. To do otherwise will re-Balkanize the world and open the Pandora’s Boxnof horror once again. Those who mock the post-WW2 order do so at their own peril. Thank you for words kind sir. And thank you for Australia.
17
@Adam, those who--like Tucker Carlson--think that alliances and peace are too expensive forget how expensive war is. Good comment.
1
@Adam: Give me a break Adam.
I took an active part in Cold War V1.0. I even met a few Aussies in South Vietnam.
The progressive thought in the 1960s and 1970s was that NATO was provocative and the Soviet Union was only defending against another invasion from the West.
Now in the age of Trump we hear about truth, justice and the American way keeping peace in the world.
I'm going to sit out Cold War V2.0 and maybe have a laugh or two at all the flag wavers. Maybe those pounding the drums will encourage their children or grandchildren to join the military to fight the Russian menace. Will you?
Write back to tell how all that works out for you and your loved ones.
2
In some ways the fremdschämen-inducing contortions that VP Pence must go through so as to shepherd this farce of a presidency into harmless oblivion invokes in one a sense of pity for the man.
Unsung hero perhaps?
10
@Skeptical Cynic I don't think that Pence is that innocent. I have not seen any evidence that Mike Pence has ever tried to acquaint Donald Trump with any aspect of normal behavior and values. He is an enabler, making him as culpable as the criminal-in-chief himself.
6
Divide and Conquer. This Executive Office is so inept that they forgot the lessons of history. Such a waste of talent and treasure.
6
Why didn't they throw a shoe at him?
78
@Rick Tornello Perhaps they did not want to waste a good shoe throw at....never mind.
1
Oh, It's on. There's Trump and his circle, always moving outward, a stone thrown in a pond. These people will destroy our country for their own gain, and they're not even trying to pretend otherwise.
Then, there's the rest of US, and the rest of the world.
22
Europe we're sorry. Please forgive us. We are populated by a large enough minority of xenophobes and ugly vested interests to fall victim to this worst of all presidents. His mediocrity can be measured by his family and minions prominently on display in Munich and at home. Kushner and Ivanka are the beneficiary of family ties. They would have no place in a reasonably functioning democracy. Pence would have lost a reelection bid in Indiana and his theocratic dithering and slavish pottering about the halls of trump power are all too well known. I' hope you can commiserate with us having gone through very bad times as well...
But we have to believe that despite the gail force sucking up
eminating from trump's GoP and their 40% chronically offended and offensive constituency America will continue the decisive mid-terms trend and throw the bums out in 2020. Then we will apologize publicly and set about undoing the harm to friendships and alliances.
Please bear with us. We look to you to hold the fort until US reinforcements arrive in less than 2 years. And do your part in holding off Russia, China and emerging autocratic governments and populist movements in Poland, Hungary, Italy and elsewhere.
Liberal democracy, ironically is the only creed that allows for aberrations like trumps and Pences to flourish. They trade on its virtues to stay in power. We will not allow that.
So thank you and we're sorry. Please bear with us. This too shall pass.
93
@Chris Parel
Reading your comment about asking Europe to "hold the fort" made me muse that we saved the day for Europe during WWII, and perhaps they will save the day for America. Fascinating!
1
@Chris Parel...Five (5) apologies in one apologia. That is surely a record. One is compelled, after such a compelling public display, to agree that you are indeed "sorry". But, Europe and liberal democracy in general will surely accept your heartfelt contrition when you ride to their rescue in less that two years. It'll be just like a John Wayne movie. The Sands of Iwo Jima. No - Japan's now our buddy. The Longest Day. No - Germany, you know. The Green Berets. Oh, NO. Really bad optics. Well, it'll all work out on VT Day 2020.
American belligerence abroad increases the prospect of war with the convenient effect her military industrial complex engines go on humming nicely. By now the perpetual war making machine the US has been suckling since WW2 has grown up to become whole world's number one problem.
17
Trump and his base exist in a dream world where all the ills are caused by 'foreigners', whether it is immigrants to the US, or by 'foreign entanglements', "foreign trade" or "globalization", and they think that the US can walk away from the world, build metaphorical and physical walls around the US, and we can once again become that great, do it at home nation. Of course, doesn't dawn on them that if they continue to fray alliances and the like, that things will get worse. That huge BMW plant in South Carolina can be reduced to making only cars needed for the US market, BMW could move the rest of the production overseas; same with the other auto makers and other manufacturers who build here while based overseas. They really think like the US can go it alone, we don't need anyone else, everyone else is a parasite, and they might wake up to find out that Trump is like the organism in a symbiotic relationship, that overwhelms its host and kills it, like parasites often do.
24
Ready to flirt?
READY TO FLIRT?
What do you call their energy deal with Moscow?
A Wienerschnitzel?
NATO exists for one reason only
To protect European nations from attack by Russia.
And you turn around and sell your soul to Russia...and expect us to do what?
I don't get it.
This makes absolutely no sense .It isGermany who's been shorting NATO the last 10 years. Apparently they got the idea they didn't need to honor their commitments from the last President, who said if they let him use Brandenburg as a backdrop...they could ease up on their NATO spending.
7
@Erica Smythe One point I can agree with - you don't get it.
8
@Erica Smythe, Germany has gotten gas from Russia (then the Soviet Union) since the Cold War. How is this different? Where do you think most of Europe's energy comes from?
Speaking of selling your soul to Russia, what do you think of Donald Trump? Merkel stands up for Western values. Trump rolls over. The contradictions in your comment are so obvious that the comment itself seems like pure rhetoric. You're defending a Russian puppet by attacking a world leader who calls him out.
1
@SandraH. You might want to ask those 1000 or so Russian backed rebels trying to take control of Eastern Ukraine who've been killed with Trump supplied weapons and armament.
The missile systems Obama removed to appease Russia? Yeah..Trump put them back.
If you can get away from the TDS..you will see that Trump is not in bed with Russia anymore than Obama was in bed with Iran..though I can see how through a stilted media lens...you could come to either conclusion of collusion.
The fact 55% of Democrats say that Russia and Trump colluded to win the 2016 election is mindnumbing..since not one agency of our government has said this happened.
You've created your own reality around Trump Russia and it's simply not helpful for us to deal with any issues around the world..or at home.
I live in Indiana. Mike Pence is, and always has been, an obsequious little toady who has gotten worse as he has gotten nearer the seats of power. His goal is to turn the US into a theocracy, start a war in the Middle East, bring Jesus back to earth, and spend eternity looking a Jesus the way he looks at Trump. I hope when Trump goes down in flames, he joins him. If the two stay in power much longer, we will all go down in flames and what Angela Merkel thinks of us will be the least of our problems.
222
@Suzanne
When the final act of the play unfolds, will Pence regard Trump as the anointed herald of the Second Coming or a slightly cheesy Anti-Christ? I can't wait to find out!
2
Trump, McConnell, Ryan, Pence, Mulvaney, Miller, Kushner, Bolton and others are literally ripping out country apart. I don't know what Pence was expecting but he's made a fool out of himself in any ways over and over.
Th magnitude of blowing up our relationship with our European allies is beyond belief. Putin and other US enemies are probably in reveling in out countries conundrum.
29
Pence knows what side his bread is buttered on. And, with Mr. Trump’s daughter sitting in, he gave a reassuring performance that he is loyal to a President who is “untethered from truth and reality.” Vladimir Putin had to be very pleased.
36
@priscus
Ivanka had a piece of the Trump Moscow Hotel, and if Trump goes down her financial empire with Jared could go south fast and MSB will not be able to bail them out of all the lawsuits coming their way. Kompromat!
1
Did anyone notice the narrow nasty look Pence gave when he mentioned Lindsay Graham at the Munich meeting? Or the blank look in his eyes when he mention trump and no one applauded?
Pence is dangerous. He is crafty, never reveals his feelings and has political savvy combined with religious madness that makes him not only dangerous, but also destructive.
99
Dangerous he is.
2
I wonder what his co-conspirators will do when trump decides he doesn't think we should have elections anymore and he should be our Dictator! I am guessing if what McConnell did in changing his mind about the emergency order; he will have a spine one day, then we get to watch it leave his back and slide down and become pads for his knees.
8
Trump's actions and words toward America's allies, especially those in Europe, are indeed arrogant, destructive and, well, stupid. And I don't blame the Europeans for pushing back, or for flirting with other strategic arrangements.
I do doubt that the damage to the Trans-Atlantic relationship is permanent or long-standing, however. Some seem to forget that US/European relations were at an even worse place during the run-up to the Iraq War, where two of the three principal European powers - France and Germany - were openly antagonistic toward the US, and even opposed American actions at the UN.
We're not at that point yet, and of course, Trump could still make things worse. My guess is that Trump's focus will be on the domestic fight for his stupid wall, after which he will turn his sights onto the 2020 campaign - which, if I were a betting man, I'd wager that he will lose.
8
The Europeans are coming to grips with what the majority of Americans have known since the Fall of 2016, that Donald J. Trump is ill-prepared, ill-informed and ill-tempered for office of Presidency of the United States and certainly for the role as leader of the free world. In his infantile, some would call racist, desire to undo President Obama's achievements and trash his dignified and intelligent role on the international stage, the weak President has driven a wedge between the United States and its traditional allies and failed to seize the opportunity to improve relations with our adversaries. Withdrawing from the Paris Accord and the Iran Agreement, both of which won near unanimous approval from from every member of the United Nations set the stage upon which poor Vice President Pence was given a speech to read without looking at anyone but the President's daughter. How far we have come from the beacon of hope to lights out find your own way.
32
She is intelligent, She understands whether not Trump realizes it, he is doing the work of Putin. He cannot plead ignorance I am sure his intelligence points this out, call it malicious indifference. Malicious because he refused to listen to anyone with a different world view. Trashing American treaties and agreements while the GOP stads b is the legacy Trump will leave America. I only hope concerned Americans worry about this. Frankly I am not sure the compromised McConnell held hostage by his wife's cabinet job, cares or want to care.
10
Pence may have accepted a "pick on the cheek" from Ivanka but he can't go to lunch with her.
19
At the end of this column Roger Cohen got it exactly and I do mean exactly right. Our European friends do not come from a place of conceptul theories and what ifs. Their collective experience is fueled by our two world wars that we’re bestowed upon them. There is nothing abstract at all contributing to how they will work to coalesce in a more perfect European Union.
15
@Eileen C. Hannon...Our two world wars were not bestowed upon them. "They" started them all by themselves. European against European. Encore performances of the last several hundred years. The only things that upset the arc of European History was the intervention of the United States. A "more perfect European Union is the ultimate oxymoron".
1
Without meaning to suggest that our former allies in Europe cozy up to Moscow and Beijing, I believe they'd be doing themselves- and us- an enormous favor by kicking the U.S. out of NATO and sending every American ambassador back home. Our feckless leader believes that no treaty (or any other document containing more than 140 characters) is worth the paper it's written on and that the dictate "America First" should be observed by every other country in the free world. Those countries would be far better off on their own, both practically and ethically, and if the U.S. finds itself without allies on the next occasion that a jihadist levels one of our skyscrapers Americans will know just who's to blame.
18
@stu freeman Interesting theory-kicking the United States out of NATO. That would save Trump from attempting to try on is own with some lame excuse.
If that were to happen, what would the effects on the strategic alliance the U.S. has with Canada?
3
@stu freeman, kicking the U.S. out of NATO is exactly what Putin would prescribe. I think you're idea is disastrous--it would mean not just the end of U.S. influence, but NATO itself.
Putin is chomping at the bit. He's already got the Baltic countries in his sights, not to mention Ukraine.
Merkel is arguing for strengthening ties through shared values--multilateralism, not isolationism and chaos. She knows that Europe would not be better off going it alone.
1
@SandraH.: Our former allies are being humiliated by America's Great White Dope. Again, I'm not suggesting that they turn themselves over to Vlad's tender embraces but rather that they treat Trump as Person Non Grata and wait him out until a new president turns up who'll proceed to treat them with some degree of dignity.
2
How LAUGHABLE to call the Europeans allies. They are DEPENDENTS. For over a century: WWI, Lead-lease, WWII, Marshall Plan, Cold War, NATO it has been a one way flow of lives and money, money and more money from the US to Europe. Time for the Europeans to start pulling their weight and pay for their own defense.
5
@Reader In Wash, DC In reading the piece it alludes that may be what the Europeans are up to.
NATO or not, Trump cannot be depended on should our allies need the assistance. Merkel realizes this, as do the other leaders.
Lastly, the remainder of your comment concerning the value of NATO and alliances is not worth debating.
14
@Dan
The Europeans are not allies. They are dependents.
1
@Reader In Wash, DC, the vast majority of Americans disagree with you and Trump. The only time Article 5 was ever invoked was when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11. Our NATO ALLIES rushed to our defense, all of them sending troops to Afghanistan.
You seem to think that isolationism will save you money. The country was filled with isolationists prior to World War II. How much money does war save us? We've been the anchor to the Western alliance for over 50 years because that alliance is in OUR interests as much as any other Western democracy.
2
I cannot believe that this is all just happening by chance. Trump has never had the smarts to conjure up something like we're currently experiencing on the foreign and domestic stages.
No, I smell a rat. There's something else at work here. We're being torn apart from friends and family domestically and now internationally, too. Trump and Pence were both in the right place at the right time and they've turned out to be the perfect dupes (or dopes, if you prefer) for the job.
So much of this animosity between neighbors, family, friends and the international community could have been averted early on by the likes of McConnell and Ryan. One has to wonder if they have been paid handsomely, or are just a couple of dupes, too.
The world order is being turned upside down and torn apart. I hope all of the people in red MAGA ball caps will be on the front lines if we have to defend our homeland.
28
This Vice-President represents the great majority of Americans, and the Europeans know that.
Most Americans also know that Merkel has sabotaged the safety and security with the rankest political moves since WWII and has gotten far too many Germans attacked by violent immgants not at all interested in joining German society.
The only surprise would be if the German leadership did NOT act like teenagers caught driving dad's car while out drunk.
Pence will be a great candidate to succeed Trump when the day comes.Don't forget how many Americans are Christians.
2
@L'osservatore OK - But also remember how many Americans are not Christians. What does that have to do with international relations? Is there such a word as "religionists"?
17
@L'osservatore
on which facts do you justify to claim that "Merkel has sabotaged the safety and security" with "too many Germans attacked by violent immigrants..."?
Are you aware, that despite the influx of more than 1 million immigrants in recent years into Germany the murder rate in the USA is 5 times higher than in Germany and those numbers are stable already for decades? Death toll and crime statistically has not been much higher than before the wave of immigrants (even though of course there are also criminals among immigrants). The US has more safety problems with all those guns being freely accessible among US citizen than with potential terrorist attacks. 9/11 was terrible with more than 3000 people cruelly dying in that terrible terroristic attack - still: compare that to the annual around 15.000 people shot dead in the USA, not by immigrants but mostly by residents. What about that facts? Living in Germany is much more safe than living in the USA, despite the 2015 immigrants/refugees.
9
I am a Christian and he is not a Christian. I will not say what I really think he is.
1
As best I can tell, many of you think that if the next president is halfway sane, he/she will be able to quickly restore the trust between the U.S. and Europe. I don't think so.
I think Europe will never trust us in the same way as pre-Trump. The Europeans have been baffled by the American electorate a couple of times now. They were a bit horrified that such an imbecile as G.W. Bush could be elected. They started to lose faith in the American electorate when G.W. was re-elected. With the election of Trump, they will no longer trust that the American electorate won't send a populist madman to the presidency. With that knowledge, you will have to structure your alliances and strategic thinking and behavior differently. You will have to be more independent. You will have to be more distrustful of the US regardless of who the current president is.
This may ultimately be good for Europe. But it is a genuine loss of power and influence for the US. Yes, Donald Trump did that.
53
@NA Expat We were also horrified by the ascension of Bush 43. However, at this point in time Bush 43 would be a refreshing change from Insane 45.
11
@Dan Bush 43 despite his faults was the right man at the right time to manage the fall of the East. You might read A World Transformed regarding this period.
I’ll bet you the Europeans asked Jared, behind closed doors, if he was able to find financing for his property at 666 Fifth Ave!
What I would ask Jared; Was it worth selling out America, the World’s Great Democracy, for personal monetary gain?
17
I write a newspaper column elsewhere. This week I wrote another Trump critique.
https://www.vnews.com/Column-The-art-of-the-deal-23503869?fbclid=IwAR2nru4IOGlZkgcuz28_yOnRNYs6bzTwcVc-1xlPijtI-_PdcoAmovHuSng
As usual I got a few angry retorts. I always respond and ask, "Rather than simply rant, will you please rebut anything I wrote or provide support for your apparent affection for Trump?"
Whenever I do this, there is no response. The pro-Trump comments in this thread are equally empty and meaningless. Trump supporters have no argument except "I'm proud of Trump for putting America first" or similarly vacant pap.
There is never a cogent argument or factual rebuttal, because Trump supporters are willfully ignorant or stupidly willful. To the contrary, many others who comment here are well-informed and provide nuanced expressions of the complex and damaging ramifications of this administration's offensive posturing.
So, Trump people: Prove me wrong. Write an intelligent comment explaining why this administration's disregard for a civilized world order is a good thing. I will wait with great interest.
60
@Barking Doggerel
In should be noted that the linked article is hiding behind the Vallium News's paywall, so is not generally available.
@Barking Doggerel We also will wait. And wait. And wait.
1
Imagine if Eisenhower was one of trump’s generals. Hahaahaha.
7
@David J
He'd be fired by now.
1
Most of the big German car companies have major factories here in the US. Are we going to tell them to go home?
14
"There is a strategic vacuum. Vacuums are dangerous. "
The French are a nuclear power. Let them fill the European vacuum. That should be fun to watch.
2
@scythians
Reading this particular column and a few others today, I am astounded at so many Americans expressing such evil ill wishes toward Europeans in general!
This seems so antithetical to accepted USA values and generous spirit, I am nonplussed , and grieve at such a loss. Where is this hatred coming from? Is it that WW 11 ended several decades ago ? Or is it that America has never been subjected to bombing attack on the mainland, other than the World Trade Center ?
The majority of the world ‘s nations stood in union of support with the USA on that horrific occasion, shocked at the unwarranted carnage and deaths of innocents. My son was almost one of them, and his Company lost almost 90 employees, with grieving families, many with young children.
6
This is not only sad but embarrassing. These are our allies not some landowner trump is trying to con to build another golf course,. We need these people and they us. Our alliances have kept us all strong and free since WWII. The Republicans have abandoned governing, they just acquiesce to the whims of trump. Are there no men of dignity left in the GOP, no honor, no morality. Mitch McConnell is a traitor and should be removed from office.
30
@Steve
Thank you , Steve! Yes, Europeans are our allies, and they are entitled to respect and consideration as such per my previous comment on this subject.
8
It is hard to imagine a man less capable of leadership than Mr. Trump, but Mike Pence is such a person. If he has a mind of his own he certainly keeps it on a short leash. At least the US delegation included the Saints of capitalism and self service, Ivared.
21
Strange and sad times. It would seem that the men and women who've sought the modern Presidency wanted it because they want to lead our country in leading the world. Yet here we are with a president who seeks to take our ball and walk away from the global field in wallowing self-pity.
In pandemics we know that isolation buys you time but not immunity. This holds true in global politics as well, and should be pretty obvious to even the most doltish of dotards.
Yet here we are, down a dark rabbit hole
Strange and sad times indeed.
12
Merkel is just doing what she ever did - realpolitik. She is not opposing Trump, she is just hedging german and european interests. And after all it was Charles de Gaulle who said "Nations has no friends, only interests."
7
Never forget that W's administration pulled the first thread on this unraveling. As for the perpetual German notion that they can "handle" Russia - it never works out. Europe needs to patiently await Trump's downfall and not provide him and the GOP with the catastrophic results they so eagerly anticipate.
8
Our post World War ll Marshall Plan has worked its magic. Along with the United Nations and NATO, the U.S.A. provided a peace for large part of the world for a generation. Working together under the U.S. military umbrella, we crushed the Soviet Union, won the race to space, and created strong economic prosperity for all. That era is now ended. Our President is casting Western Europe loose; NATO being a cost we can no longer afford. He demands subservience to his foreign policy initiatives. He lays tariffs on European goods entering out country. He dismisses the threat of Russia at their borders. What they know, that he seems to have forgotten (or never knew) is how World War ll was fomented, and why Western Europe fell into chaos after World War l. He doesn't seem to understand why communism arose early in the last century, or why capitalist economic systems must be responsive to the people who live under them. Perhaps he never knew any of that history or economic stuff. Someone ought to educate the man before he gets us into World War lll.
10
@Patrick Stevens "Educate the man" strikes a chord... in addition to his tax returns, I'd like to see Donny's grades. (before they were massaged with bribes.) Hard to believe this clown was ever schooled in the way of book learning. How'd he get past high school?
1
"more Germans trust Vladimir Putin’s Russia than Trump’s United States"
History should make Poland and the Baltic states wary of this alliance.
8
Politicians like Pence and Pompeo have no other reason to speak except to endear themselves to power. They are careerists who do not have ideas they believe but rather slogans they repeat. The slogan thinking they read off cue cards written by junior staffers pulled from think tanks is not political discourse, it does not strictly speaking even offer up a coherent ideology though it is mostly idealogical. They are busy currying favor among those with power and money. Trump. The Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, the Mercers, the Waltons, the Murdochs — They are always and forever both fundraising and fawning on the big egos of their wealthy, pushy donors who are not really content to sit on the sidelines like a previous generation of the super wealthy did, they want to move politicians across the world stage like puppets, they don't care anymore if you see the strings.
To think that there was anything as sophisticated going on among Republicans as a foreign policy or diplomatic positions is just to ignore all the evidence. Look at the Fox News Barbie that just bowed out from Governor Haley's old job because of nanny issues. Do you think for a minute she would have brought ideas with her to the UN.
I know it's severe and dismal, but look at these people for what they so obviously are. Stop pretending they have reflected on anything or even have knowledge within their grasp. Our ship of state is rudderless and sailing blind.
17
Sometimes I think trumps policies to the extent that he has any are motivated purely by revenge. Undo any and everything Obama for making fun of him at WHCD. Anything to snub the western elites who for decades would never accept him in their ranks because they knew he was a morally and financially bankrupt failure. Cozy up to Russia because they are the only people who loaned him money and treated him with any respect. Cow tow to Saudi royals to get more funding when necessary etc etc etc
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@ME - Exactly. Me too. (we are as one).
3
@Eric Nielsen, @Ronald Duke and @ y'all who think that Europe needs the US.
1.The trade surplus with Germany is a result of demand for their quality products (cars and tech), plus a weak euro. The Germans will ALWAYS have byers.
2. Leaving NATO and Europe will be a HUGE financial loss for America's military-industrial complex, and a boon to the same in Europe. It could only strengthen and unify Europe politically and geographically, while further weakening the US.
The US has gotten plenty from its "relationship" with Europe. So go ahead America, be arrogant and see where it gets you, and take the Brits, while you're at it.
13
I hope our European friends keep in mind that we elected HRC by a large popular vote margin, but our undemocratic Electoral College appointed Trump. And, that millions of Americans are sickened by the sight of Trump contaminating our highest office and wrecking the alliances we respect and need.
While we have a tradition in the US of not putting our former Presidents in jail, even though they may be criminals, many are hoping that Trump will be the exception.
12
@joe Agreed - may Guantanamo Bay be Trump's final offal (pun intended) office.
1
Aside from the total embarrassment of Pence at the conference, I want to know what his involvement with the Russians is. Everyone around Trump has something about Russia to hide. Pence ran the Transition when all the meetings were taking place. Perhaps he is not an innocent man. He has a fake pious veneer that is he hopes will obscure any facts.
10
Europe is hanging themselves and they’re too myopic to understand this. Their EU experience has been a costly purchase of political correctness & Brussels oversight bought at the price of sovereignty & tradition. Looking to Russia for comfort is reckless. Surely the Queen remembers whose side the red bear was on during WW-II.
1
To clarify - whose side the red bear was on at the end of WW-II. It wasn’t the Allies side.
3
Europeans are already familiar with Trump's brand of demagoguery. Germans in particular recognize his favorite phrase "enemy of the people" as a translation of "Volksfeind", an expression used by a certain other dictator in the 1930's.
12
When will it sink in? Mr. Trump has traded the support of the majority of the western world for the support of tiny, isolated pockets of xenophobes and miscreants. Adoring though they may be, the chances increase with each passing revelation that the realization will dawn upon them that they too are nothing more than faceless marks in Trump's endlessly spinning grift.
5
Roger, in his fantasy world, thinks he is a European (whatever that means- i guess whatever is Europe is smarter than the U.S. no matter how many Americans have died in wars cleaning up Germany and France's never ending messes). So it makes sense (if sense can be applied to Roger) that he has all he has it backwards. It is not that Trump turned Germans into Gaullists, Rather, it's that France has become more Germanic (well, they've always been famously nationalistic and proudly anti-Semitic). Roger has the decency to admit that Markel did not even mention Trump (not that it matters to Roger). Oh well. My father always said after WW2 we should have let Germany keep France, and let Russia keep Germany (plus Poland and Ukraine (there is no "the") and then everyone got what they deserved. Lucky for Roger he was not in France, Ukraine , Poland or Germany in the 1940's. He would have found out then exactly how European he was and how his beloved Europe treated people with his (and my) last name (which included many Cohen's) that France happily rounded up and handed over to Germany and were never heard from again).
1
Pence's statements about "leadership of the free world" seemed particularly ironic given that Trump has more or less said he is not interested in such leadership. It was such a domestic speech. Very poorly judged for those in attendance... but perhaps well-judged for its intended domestic audience?
8
It amazes me how easily, and how fast, Trump and the Republicans have abandoned our nation's role as leader of democracy, liberty and progress. Now it's only golf, money and getting re-elected that seems to matter.
23
"The overall effect was B-movie bizarre and offensive, a careful-what-you-wish-for warning to any Democrat tempted by impeachment of Trump. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, sat in the front row with a Delphic smile. Pence did acknowledge her, but only just."
Trump and his right-wing populism have managed to turn his cabinet and a majority of Republicans in Congress into Stepford spouses. Watching them with bemusement, the Speaker is probably pondering the best strategy to deal with the strange Republican transformation. Hence the Delphic smile on her face. Impeachment is probably not the first thought on her mind. But if she does decide on that course of action, she would assuredly do so with due deliberation.
10
The abysmal performance of Mike Pence is not any surprise to those who knew him well before Trump snatched him from obscurity as the failed governor of Indiana to convince main stream right-wingers that Trump was OK. That role is no longer necessary, and if Pence survives the Muller probe (good chance he wont) no one will consider him even remotely electable.
21
"Whatever happens, America will not be back in the same form."
That's what we've lost sight of and why we won't be able to rid ourselves of Trump even after he is gone, if he goes.
Exactly like every society before us, during times of absolute abundance, we failed to genuinely educate ourselves, which would have allowed us to avoid electing Trump. We are not really up-in-arms about the values and norms Trump is breaking because we won't realize their value, of course, until they're gone (we wouldn't be human otherwise).
The coming election's results are not going to mean a thing. Only an elected President who would demonstrably roll back Presidential powers, take away traditional powers we now see being abused, and demand some kind of intellectual plenary session of the nation's best minds to examine and recommend wholesale fixes and changes to both Houses of Congress, would be worth electing.
NO ONE in the current crop is going to do that because they are ALL addicted to a Second term before even winning the First—and that includes EVERYONE running or Planning to announce.
Bottom line: If it is dog-eat-dog without guardrails, I place my bet on China.
9
@Anthony Adverse. Should Joe Biden choose to run it has been posited that he will declare himself to be a one term president——charged with cleaning up the current mess without his having to began fund raising for a second term as he takes his hand off the Bible at his inauguration.
4
Europe had a searing experience with another individual with Trump's negotiating style and egotistical ambition. They know that appeasement leads to increased demands. So, this time, Munich is working out differently.
9
" Some polls have suggested that more Germans trust Vladimir Putin’s Russia than Trump’s United States."
Oh, the irony. When Germans see the Russian government is a better light, than Trump's government it shows how fats the US has fallen.
Though, it took time. The US - EU strain began with the Great Recession. The US, lack of regulation, thanks to George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and the GOP, created miserly across Europe. President Obama really tried to fix, what was broken. Then came Trump, who undid what President Obama did, and added to the original damage.
Fro the EU, the best thing that can happen, si Germany takes the lead, and tell the US to g o home and kick them out of NATO. This is what Trump and Pence want, anyway, as they claim teh US doe snot need anyone by itself.
It is no surprise, that Ms. Merkel has called out Trump on embracing dictators and autocrats. She knows what it is like to live in a controlled society; East Germany. So, she knows what she is talking about, with what she see with Trump and what is going on in the US.
The problem, with he US, is that Americans take for granted that democracy, checks and balances and rule of law is automatic and a given. Going to the point of not even voting in elections. Our republic is under threat from people like Trump, Pence, some GOP politicians and oligarchs. The French learned a long time ago; democracy is something you fight for every day. Not doing so; and democracy is lost.
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@Nick Metrowsky The problem with the US is that a mere 40% lazy voters don't (register to) vote in elections...
Thank you Roger Cohen for another enlightening article.
Does Mike Pence deserve all this criticism, especially since he might be Trump's messenger, rather than his own man?
Despite what other commenters argue, NATO total military budgets combined, excluding Trump's military budget, is a lot bigger than Putin's. This shows that other governments are wasting money with exuberant spending. That often happens when the rulers spend other people's hard-earned money, rather than their own. When you look at the bloated U.S. government's budgets, their excessive spending pales in comparison, nest pas?
7
@Jake Pence deserves as much criticism as he gets and then some. He reminds me of Damien from The Omen.
7
And, one could not have a clearer sign of why Putin's Russia intervened in the 2016 election to support Trump. Breaking the European-U.S. alliance is a key Russian strategic desire - and Trump has delivered in spades.
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The EU was walking away before Trump. Their global relevance continues to wane as they yield control to the unchecked immigration that is destroying European tradition.
@Melbourne Town Yeah..replaced with a Germany-Russia alliance.
That helps the U.S. how, exactly?
Your TDS is getting in the way of thinking straight.
My hope is that thoughtful reasoned people participate in this forum.
Plus...Russia didn't want Trump as President. Putin wanted a damaged Hillary Clinton.
Putin's interference in the 2016 election wasn't to help Trump..or Sanders...or Stein..it was to punch Hillary in the nose for her and Obama's complicity in interfering in his 2011 Presidential campaign.
You didn't think Putin would just let that go..did you?
Now he's got 8 years of blackmail material that's utterly worthless.
@Alan "The EU was walking away before Trump." You have something that supports this claim? Anything at all? Even a rumor? Enlighten us please
1
"As the crowd rose in unison to give Merkel a standing ovation, the president’s daughter remained seated."
This may seem to be a minor event, but it reflects the downfall of our government and country. The president's daughter, whose only talents before her father became president were as a fashion designer, is sitting at a meeting of the Munich Security Conference of world leaders. Seated next to her was her husband, the president's son-in-law, a failed real estate developer who has been afforded enormous responsibilities to solve the problems in the mideast. The US is being led not only by embarrassingly incompetent people but by those whose allegiance is to their father and not the country. Mike Pence deserved the deafening silence he received after presenting "greetings" form this faux president.
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@MEM
Actually Ivanka was not a fashion designer. She copied other people’s designs in her merchandise; and was sued for it by at least one designer. She was nothing but a marketer.
14
Oh puhleez...Ivanka Trump is no fashion designer. It takes a lot of talent and hard work to toil in this industry. All she does is copy others designs and slap her name on it. No talent required.
10
a"They are, however, wondering how best to project the free world’s values now that its leader has gone AWOL"
Isn't this a goal of the American Left: reduce the leadership role of the US and make it a mediocre power?
1
@scythians, was that FDR's goal? Or Kennedy's? Or Johnson's? And if it were a goal of the left, does that make Trump a leftist? Because he has done more to isolate and weaken the US and give comfort to our enemies than any other president in history. Trump is pushing our allies into the arms of our enemies -- South Korea to Kim Jong Un, and now Germany into Putin. Almost forgot pushing all of our Pacific trading partners into the arms of China. As usual, it will take Democrats a generation to repair the damage Republicans can do in a couple of years.
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@scythians It would be weird for the American Left and the American Right (as evidenced by Trump's actions this term) to have such a common goal, wouldn't it?
3
@scythians If by "the left" you mean Putin, yes. Remember, he was former Communist KGB and how much farther left can you get?
10
Insistence that Trump's actions make sense in a context of what we understand to be traditional American values and domestic and international interests is a mistake. Presuming his actions "make sense" in a context of Trump's personal values and interests is a more reliable route to understanding his positions. His actions are consistent with Putin's international interests. In the absence of either confirming or contradictory information, it is always safest to conclude that actors understand what underlies their actions and that they are acting in accordance with their interests. I wish analysts would stop seeing the gulf between Trump's actions and American interests and concluding that his actions are inexplicable. They are inexplicable only if we disregard the obvious and ignore what we know about human behavior.,
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@rkalish: I disagree. You're presupposing that Trump is a human being whereas nothing he says or does backs up that notion.
5
@stu freeman: I understand your point, and I agree that he lacks many of the qualities, like empathy and compassion, we like to see in human beings. Nevertheless, he actually is a human being and in the absence of convincing evidence that he lacks intentionality, I believe that certain inferences about his conduct are justified. After all, if you deny he has the characteristics of a human being, then you cannot at the same time claim he has the human capacity to follow instructions and is in fact dutifully following Putin's instructions (a proposition for which a persuasive case can be made).
1
McConnell enjoys hegemony in the Senate. It's as important to break that as to oust Trump. McConnell knows our hearts and minds. I predict he'll give full support to Trump's re-election--on one condition: that Pence be replaced on the VP ticket. McConnell wants someone more palatable than Pence as successor, so that those bent on impeachment can get on with it without the threat of a Pence presidency.
6
@Des Johnson: Are you kidding? Pence would be the perfect stooge for a conservative Congress.
4
@Des Johnson
We have to watch out for that dastardly duo of McConnell and Graham. That pair could prove deadly to this country.
2
Roger, please, let's stop presuming that this President of the United States is, or ever will be, the leader of the free world. That conceit of American Exceptionalism has been interred and leadership is now being demonstrated by Angela Merkel. Trust has been breached and once sacrificed it is exceeding difficult to regain.
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@Reginald A Willoughby I don’t necessarily think American Exceptionalism is/was based entirely on conceit. It was largely America that gave the world breathing space to recover from the post-WW2 period, from which those nations - including Canada - lost valuable treasure in their citizens but from which the US exited from relatively unscathed in an economic sense. It was American Exceptionalism that fortified the soldiers and citizens of many nations with the materiel to defeat the madmen and also help feed the citizens of those nations. Since then, yes, there have been mistakes, serious ones, along the way. Now that the world has recovered, it is time for America to be less hegemonic but it is also time for burden sharing. I don’t see much help from others using their Navy’s around the world to preserve freedom of movement within sea lanes some would claim are their territorial waters. Granted our current President is a fool, but God forbid, if the time comes to dispatch another madman, I have no doubt, that the world will turn to us, and that we will respond once again. That is American Exceptionalism. God Bless Canada.
1
The American government is not currently headed by a serious, rational adult. Hence, the foreign policy projected by U.S. representatives is not seriously regarded by Europeans other than for its recklessness and craven disregard for the post WWII framework which has proven so successful.
Mr. Pence is a toady for Mr. Trump, so even less deserving of respect. How and when the U.S. regains respect on the world stage post-Trump is an open question.
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@Alan R Brock
I agree with your idea except that we do have a rational adult, as serious as it gets.
And that makes him all the more scary. He is not a child doing random acts. He is doing calculated damage that benefits himself either financially of politically, even if he does not always maximizes that benefit.
2
...from the piece: "His speech ended not with a bang but a whimper. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner leapt to their feet in the near silence. Pence had two fans in Europe. "
Am I understanding this correctly--Pence finished his speech and only two people stood up to applaud?
Is there a picture or video of this?
...worth a thousand words
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@Mark I agree. It would be great to see this on video .... and for all his supporters to see the chilling effect.
17
@Mark: "...in the near silence..." Big word, near.
4
@Mark: That's roughly the same size as Trump's inaugural crowd.
25
Because of the Republican party of recent decades and its major donors, the US, despite being responsible for about 28% of global historical greenhouse gas emissions, is not leading the global fight to cut emissions drastically, as is required. I really don't think the Democratic party and its supporters are appreciating the political moment. Unless this changes I wouldn't expect foreign antipathy to the US to soften, even with a change of president. My solution includes Nancy Pelosi and her fellow centrist Democrats being invited to form a new centre-right party to contest the centre-left Democrats. You can guess the rest.
4
Trump is indeed driving Europe into the arms of Putin. If they find NATO unreliable (and they do), they have little recourse but to make a separate arrangement with Putin. A new nightmare Axis among Berlin, Moscow and Tehran may develop. Germany requires oil and labor, Russia and Iran welcome foreign exchange, capital investment and technology transfer. Not smart for Europe or us. But nobody ever accused Trump of being smart.
44
@Jerry
> But nobody ever accused Trump of being smart
With one resounding bellicose exception; Mr. Trump, himself.
2
Mark my words - the leases on bases like Ramstein will be up for negotiation soon. If our expectation is for Germany to pay for their own defense, our footprint in Europe will shrink.
Sounds like good news to some, I'm sure, until all the Amercan support jobs go away, then recruitment numbers shrink drastically, then the Repubs will have to be the party that shrinks the military budget, which I doubt they would ever do...
1
Indeed, it is not 1945 again. Instead it resembles the years 1908 -1913, the period just prior to the First World War. It was a period of European nation-state elitism and shifting allegiances. The common thread? America was absent then too.
42
@Rick Morris Absent from what?
Germany is now in bed with Russia, nearly dependent upon them for their natural gas supplies.
Who does such a thing while not honoring their own NATO commitments?
It's almost as if Angela is sticking her middle finger in the face of America saying "Dare me!"
You can tell she's East German. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
You tell me what kind of person decides to move from West Germany to East Germany voluntarily?
2
@Erica Smythe
The answer to your question:
Absent from leading.
1
@Erica Smythe
You are clearly working from a very limited spreadsheet.
First of all. Germany is not "in bed with Russia", but it has come to realize the U.S. is no longer an ally under the Trump administration.
And you obviously haven't been keeping up, otherwise you'd know that Germany has increased its military budget, while still keeping forces on the ground in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Africa.
By the way, Angela Merkel was born in HAMBURG, WEST GERMANY.
Her family only moved East because her father was a Pastor.
At least get the facts straight and stop depending on stereotypes. It's cheap.
2
Pence’s cluelessness was on full display. The fact that he waited for applause after mentioning Trump’s name showed just how far removed from reality he is.
709
@Kurt Keep nitpicking on the little things. That's the spirit. Don't complain about Germany reneging on their NATO commitments while we rack up $22 Trillion in debt.
We have LNG she could buy for Germany and instead contracts with the Russians.
I guess we don't have to worry about Germany becoming Fascist again. Just Marxist/Leninist/Socialist...like their brethern in the former USSR>
2
@Erica Smythe
I see you are proud to be an ignorant Trumper. You probably rooted for the most recent $1.5 trillion debt addition pushed through by Republicans with no hearings. Are you also eagerly awaiting the Last Trump?
82
@Erica Smythe Funny how almost ALL of that $22T you are complaining about has happened on the Republican Watch, of cutting taxes, starting wars and giving tax rebates even, when we Were starting to pay the Debt, Ol Bush II went and said America really needed the couple hundred in their pockets each instead.
And started a war with no end game, contracted out to Cheney's Own Best Bargain, No Bid Contracts where we spent unchecked billions and trillions (some $10 Trillion in military spending cannot be tracked thru that timeframe) and the Trumpuglicans just gave out another $1.5Trillion in tax breaks for the richest.
Now you go back to bleeding heart like when Obama was President, and spending was Verboten, because it might have made him look good (and McConnell vowed to make him a One Term President, and is still trying 10 yrs later), and now the Republicans cannot spend enough to try to make themselves look good.
It is getting so that folks do not believe the stories in the Enquirer any more, who woulda thunk? Maybe if the Republicans and right wing were honest about history, science, politics and the world in general they would not be thrashing about so violently trying to get everyone to keep their eye on The Great Trump, and not the little handed guy behind the curtain yelling into his phone like a great yellow snowflake. While they carve everything up specifically for themselves, with no slice at all for the public, who happen to be hosting this feast, remember?
66
Of course, the Europeans don't want to pay for their own defense, so their not so subtle threat is that if we don't keep on doing it they could join up with the Russians. Well, let them! It's long past time for them to pay their own way. They're just playing a waiting game hoping the Dems get back in soon so they can return to the old ways--you know, American taxpayers paying for their generous welfare benefits.
5
@Ronald B. Duke
American taxpayers pay for a super-power military but do not actually pay for the defence of Europe. Alliances are meant to deter agressors so that the costs of conflict are avoided. In exchange for the US commitment, Europe provides significant auxiliary support to US campaigns, such as Afghanistan or Iraq.
Also, Europe coordinates its defense spending with the US to better execute its support role. This to further benefit of the US economy.
There's no question that the EU would prefer to be independent from the US as the US is no longer seen as a reliable partner. Unfortunately, this will take time. With 27 nations, Europe struggles to translate GDP into military power. The only winner is Russia.
13
@Ronald B. Duke - What you are missing is the delicate balance in world affairs that allows democracy to flourish. It is only through alliances that democracy and freedom can survive. The price paid to maintain the NATO alliance is cheap and money well spent. Consider the alternative - Loss of trade and our country's subsequent wealth, not to mention loss of influence to continue building the democratic process worldwide. If the Russians step into the vacuum we as a country could lose everything we have been building since the end of WW2.
8
@Ronald B. Duke
Just an FYI:
Country Spending ($ Bn.) % of GDP
World total 1,739 2.2
1 United States United States 610.0 3.1
2 China People's Republic of China[a] 228.0 1.9
3 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia[a][b] 69.4 10.0
4 Russia Russia 66.3 4.3
5 India India 63.9 2.5
6 France France 57.8 2.3
7 United Kingdom United Kingdom 47.2 1.8
8 Japan Japan 45.4 0.9
9 Germany Germany 44.3 1.2
10 South Korea South Korea 39.2 2.6
11 Brazil Brazil 29.3 1.4
12 Italy Italy 29.2 1.5
13 Australia Australia 27.5 2.0
14 Canada Canada 20.6 1.3
15 Turkey Turkey 18.2 2.2
2
If Europe thinks they can get a better relationship with Russia and China, they are free to choose. The US invests a large amount of funds in protecting the EU via NATO and supports European interests globally (e.g. Libya), and buys the total German trade surplus for 30 years. If the EU thinks Russia and China will do half of that for them, then they are free to go. If the EU does not, then the US should receive some benefits from our relationship with the EU which could be more exports to Germany, German direct investment in the US for research and manufacturing facilities, etc.
6
@Eric Nielsen
It's really elementary. We protect our global interests by helping to protect our allies in Europe/Asia. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are the effective moats they used to be.
13
@Eric Nielsen
Dear Eric,
Exports from the US are welcome HERE IN GERMANY as long the german consumers are willing to buy the related products. This depends primarily on quality. There is no government induced protection of our market, the customer decides.
22
@Eric Nielsen You know that Germany operates several auto plants in the US, and indeed many (if not all) of its global companies have pretty solid footprints in the USA? From here it looks as though Germany is already investing quite a bit in the United States?
25
There is no big strong leader Europe can cling on to, nor do they need one. Indeed, they can be that leader themselves. Now that Trump has abdicated his duty to the world, it is time for Europe to realize it's strength and replace the United States entirely in global affairs. It is my deepest hope Europe keeps the disastrous effects of violent nationalism and imperialism in mind and works to bring a new era of liberty, equality, and peace.
44
@Richard B. It would be good if true, but to date the Europeans have been unwilling to underwrite the costs associated with that leadership.
1
@Thomas Smith: "Europe" has already done empire. Not interested in bristling with tanks--brains may be enough.
4
@Richard B At least one benefit to Trump is that he has definitely brought the rest of the world together without him. We are looking to new friends and alliances to replace the US, while we have moved from laughing at you behind your back to laughing in your face. You are an international joke, and we are all working to put you as far away from our affairs as we possibly can (politely, of course - we outside of your borders still think manners are important).
7
The only way any of this is going to be righted is if enough turnout is created--meaning we have to get our Facebooks out of Twitter and start thinking again--that the Republicans get voted off the island for a very long time.
The xenophobic MAGA viewpoint is loud, but it is a minority viewpoint. The problem is that it is also an extremely motivated viewpoint, with no doubt or reflection, and every one who holds it, apparently, is ready to rush to the barricades.
In the end, we who want a sane world have to outrush them. We need to assert our majority status--gerrymandering, voter suppression, and Electoral College notwithstanding--show up in overwhelming numbers, and kick these curs to the curb.
So, whatever else Democratic candidates are planning, I sure hope there's a lot of money in the budget for that get-out-the-vote drive, for carpools and phone banks and text chains and door to door outreach. Every attempt to deny voting should be challenged, posted on YouTube, protested loudly at the polls and in the courts. Everyone grab another one, and make sure they're registered.
No sleep, 'til crooks-done.
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@Glenn Ribotsky The MAGA voice is in direct response to your Socialist Democratic GND voice.
The question inevitably arises...what are you willing to concede to get our body politic back to friendly terms again?
1
@Erica Smythe
Unfortunately, the lessons most liberal progressive are learning from Trumpers / MAGA contingent is that the only concession they’re interested in is everyone’s but theirs. Liberals / progressives see their MAGA counterparts blithely cheer on Trumps extreme positions, with the absolute faith he will salve all the transgressions committed by Obama admin and they will be “I told you so” triumphant.
Since the Dem Socialist message, including GND, is one of meeting real challenges with strong coalitions and a positivity that ultimately will gather many to their sides, to the befuddlement of Trumpet/MAGA side, the message from the left should be join us if you wish, but leave the othering and hate behind.
2
Does anyone know why Ivanka Trump was there?
577
@kim I fear we will never get rid of this odious family in public life.
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@kim
President Trump needed someone to applaud Pence's speech. Perhaps the President could have also hired the people he paid $50 apiece to applaud him as he rode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential candidacy.
109
@kim: Ivanka was there for her diplomatic skills. She once met Henry Kissinger.
172
The Trump voters will call this fake news!
Unfortunately, this is the new reality since Trump took office and not fake!
The republicans' mantra used to be that Obama led from behind.
Now we have a president who doesn't lead from the front, behind or any other place.
We are no longer respected by our allies and only despots are enamored with Trump's leadership style! Trump has their back and they have his!!!
Ivanka and Jared stood to clap for
sycophant Pence but everyone else sat on their hands.
They will now have to accompany any official from the Trump administration to save face from COMPLETE SILENCE.
Is America Great already?!
Many of us have had enough of this absurd greatness!!
151
@Charna If you have a guy living in your basement who promised you $ 400 a month in rent and he hasn't paid you in 2 years...it's rather odd that he would be complaining about the towels being dirty or the heater not generating enough warmth.
That's Germany. We don't need their respect. We need them to honor their commitments...period..end of sentence..full stop.
@Erica Smythe
Your ignorance is showing. So far the only country that has called on the NATO partners for help against "enemies" is the US who called on NATO countries to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq after we were attacked on 9/11. They spent millions doing so, despite the fact that the country that actually attacked us with its citizens was Saudi Arabia. You know, the country Trump loves the murderous leader of.
As to our maintaining military bases in Europe, that is our choice because we want to "fight them over there rather than over here!" when we are attacked by our potentially serious enemy Russia.
2
@Erica Smythe
FYI. Germany has substantially increased its military spending -- And not only that, they have troops stationed abroad in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Africa -- places the U.S. is bailing out of. Do you even bother to read?
3
Again - just imagine Republican reactions if Obama wrecked NATO. Unbelievable. Never again a vote from me for a GOP terrorist.
256
And yet millions of Americans read Pence's speech and cheer. And they dominate vast stretches of the country in geographical terms. And many of them think that God makes the weather and will come back in the form of Jesus just as soon as Isreal expands to its "...biblical Borders..." and that God is in the process of raising Trump up to be King.
Yes- they believe all that-some of them anyway.
54
@Lefthalfbach Sarah Sanders being one of the most ardent believers that "God" selected Trump to lead the world. Anything more frightening????
7
On climate change they are lying. They know it, the Europeans know it, we know it. Since the future course of civilization hangs in this, how can they have any credibility on anything else.
28
The author has it backwards.
.
Angela Merkel is in the role of Dwight Eisenhower.
.
Donald Trump is in the role of 1965 Charles de Gaulle.
13
You may be right, although De Gaulle would be rightly mortified by the comparison. Whatever their roles, Mr. Blaine, we can at least take comfort, in what you told Ilse in another dark time: “We’ll always have Paris.”
2
@Richard Blaine: De Gaulle saw through the hypocrisy of Uncle Sam's paternalistic and selfish insistence on providing a "security umbrella" while talking a big game on freedom.
1
@Richard Blaine - Please do not insult Monsieur de Gaulle with such a comparison.
3
2020 can't come fast enough
46
Pence's pathetic performance in front of world leaders is just one more reason to resist the urge to impeach trump. As much as I despise trump, pence is no better. And because he just may be a bit smarter than trump, he is actually more dangerous. I fear he is also slightly more electable than trump.
106
@R.F. I disagree 100%. How I wish Trump were cast aside, and we ended up with Pence.
Pence is a run-of-the-mill GOP theocrat; a faction with a fraction of the appeal and power that they carried in the 80s and 90s. Moreover, it's a faction for whom re-arranging the global order is simply not a priority. And finally, he's a dour, bland politician with less charisma than my desk. I could see Trump winning a second term if several things break his way. I could say with confidence that the America of 2019 would not elect Pence as president next year, however.
7
@R.F.
Pence is surely implicated, probably directly involved, in at least some of Trump's many high crimes.
8
Assuming Trump runs for a second term, and further assuming he keeps Pence on the ticket, Pence will in the fullness of time face his day of reckoning with the American electorate. Far more frightening to contemplate is the reckoning this boot-licking toady will some day have with himself as he comes to terms with precisely what his ambitions cost him.
23
I'm just disturbed right now, watching Bolton talking to the Venezuelan's the lead in song to Bolton was Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. OMG, that and Bolton speaking are just plain scary, what do we have as president right now?
19
@Missy Is it time to do "The Time Warp" yet? I am beginning to think that only a video of Trump playing Dr Frankenfurter in a stage performance would deter his base base. Hmm, is That the Russian Kompromat?
Hello Europe, These turkeys don't represent most Americans. This too shall pass, please bear with us while we our house in order. We will be back.
100
@Bailey
I‘m a scared European and sure hope that you‘re right.
Knowing that the US spend about ten times as much money on weapons as the Russion Federation (figures by SIPRI, Sweden) I think that the Russians have good reason to be concerned. We need more brain and less weapons in politics.
7
@P. Fast
First of all. You'll NEVER get the truth about what the Russians already have, or spend on their military arsenal.
And yes, you have every reason to be scared ... but for different reasons.
I'm sure that a lot of Republicans are cringing about Pence's speech in Munich.
9
@Mark I sure wish I could see some indication of that.
4
When SC Mueller wraps it up, the odds that Pence is implicated are more than good. After all, it has been reported that it was Manafort who selected Pence for the VP slot. Pence has been caught in several lies regarding his knowledge of Russian entanglement from the beginning.
Therefore, as to the "careful-what-you-wish-for warning to any Democrat tempted by impeachment of Trump", I'm hoping for a "two-fer" - we get rid of them both.
71
@Deb
That notion is as uplifting as it is improbable, so thank you for bringing it to mind.
4
Cohen dreams of a monolithic Europe. A committee that will welcome people who want to destroy it in the name of religion. He is a very foolish man. Maybe because he has so many first class frequent-flyer miles. I want Europe to be what it really is: the inventor of modernity--and well beyond.
7
Let's hope for two things. One, Donald Trump's presidency ends before 2020, and two, in order to avoid jail time he and his criminal family move to Moscow and become Russian citizens.
61
In his arrogance and sheer ignorance, Trump will destroy the US. I wish his supporters were young enough to live long enough to see the damage he's inflicted.
34
I suspect Putin sees himself a genius. A few pennies thrown toward cyberwar and for luck and--poof--he succeeds in decimating his nemeses.
28
Why are Ivanka & Jared attending all these world forums? They are not leaders in anything expect daddy funded fashion business or real estate. Its sickening to see Trump & his clan strutting around like this. Hope we only have to suffer through these for another year and a half! Americans need to find a new leader who leads not just this country but the world!
203
@Sudha Nair You might want to pay more attention than what MSNBC provides you for news each night.
They are both employees of the White House and they have jobs to do.
Without those two...you think the "Jail Break" legislation that dealt with prison reform would have gotten off the ground?
Stop with the hate...and focus on policy.
@Sudha Nair, my guess is they are making connections to further the business of the tRUMP Organization. Making money is their shared goal in life, and what better place to make connections to help them in that goal.
11
@Erica Smythe, And that makes them policy experts?
16
At least Mike's harangue was not greeted with the peals of laughter that greeted Individual-1's off the rails performance at the UN.
69
@njn_Eagle_Scout - It was just as embarrassing though. Hard time to be an American now as Trump makes America a world pariah.
5
@njn_Eagle_Scout That video was a delight to see, the Foreign Leaders and aides laughing because Trump is up there bloviating, and it is entirely obvious that he does not even believe his Own Words, is just repeating them as a mantra as if, maybe he keeps thinking it, he really will become smart and the world will see his obvious intelligence. And everybody was watching this 'Naked Emperor' bloviating at them as if they were his own base at an election rally.
Priceless, well, maybe I would spend a Pence on it, but nothing more.
3
America stands alone. Europe is on their own. China and Russia are the rising powers. All with no shots fired.
33
@Ray Sipe They both are playing the long game as is Iran.
Obama's 8 years were spent apologizing and conceding power and land...and now Trump has restored our rightful place as the peacekeeper in the world...and gets no credit for it.
He could cure cancer tomorrow for all women and the headlines would be "Trump cures cancer....girls impacted the worst."
1
Donald has found a new way to fail as president, just when you think that he has done enough.
33
A recent survey by a major German institute states that 50 % of the Germans consider the USA a bigger threat than Russia (only 33 %). That is very different to almost any other European country, by the way.
You find that survey here, esp. page 24: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/wien/15176-20190213.pdf
Now, judging by the user comments here, you see how we reflect our political beliefs, how we arge back and forth about Trump and both parties, and this is all useful and fine, and also fun.
What is more important though, for our children, is that the German people, Germany is after all the wealthiest and perhaps most influential EU country, consider today the USA under Trump a bigger threat than Putin's Russia.
We've seen the reaction of the UN on Trump during his speech. We've seen the last days the reaction of the European leaders to Pence and the current American foreign policy. There is a change.
Forget for a second what party you vote. China is today Africa's biggest trade partner. Guess who's is Brazil? China. And Saudi Arabia's? Well, China as well. And Japan's? Again, China. Not by surplus, but by volume. Under Trump it became even easier.
35
@Wirfegen
But the Trump's got what they wanted from China to enrich themselves and their family retainers - the Kushners. Ivanka has registered (as I recall, loosely) about 20 trade names for her future garment businesses, the Kushners have gotten real estate projects approved, etc., etc.
The list of lusted after items is endless for The Grifters.
38
@San Francisco Voter
Alright, the Kuschners got some pieces of land and Ivanka got some fashion labels.
In return the Chinese got the railways, airports highways and ports they have built all over the world and own by far the biggest chunk of US deficit. (This is for dependency on foreign powers)
What's more substantial in the long run?
3
@Wirfegen - Spot on and well said!
2
Most Americans do not respect our own Vice President, Mike Pence. What makes you think other people from foreign countries would respect him given that he supports a corrupt president in Donald J. Trump?
40
A sad saga of American bellicosity and incompetence, the proverbial "loud" American. We used to preach values, and worked to practice them. We now vent hot air, and practice such.
33
I would pay no attention to Merkel and the other ingrates in Europe until they get their Defendse spending well about 2%. They aren’t close.
It’s sad that the writer hates Trump so much that he is blinded to reality.
5
Why blindly throw so much money to the military industrial complex?
Editor’s note: This comment has been anonymized in accordance with applicable law(s).
2
@Tim Dowd why do you think someone has to be blind to see the real truth/reality. if only trump lived in the world of humans.
2
Reality? The reality is that there is much to hate about trump. His hatefulness leads us (at least the MAJORITY of Americans) to hate him!
3
Re Pence, I’ll paraphrase one of my favorite Churchill quotes, which he said about his Labour Party rival Clement Attlee. “An empty car drove up to the Munich Security Conference and Mike Pence got out.”
58
I will paraphrase another: Pence- A sheep in sheep's clothing.
2
With U.S. allies constantly under attack by an ignorant president and a servile vice-president, the United States is becoming less relevant on the world stage as Cohen’s column demonstrates at this meeting in Munich.
China and Russia are the beneficiaries of this neglect by the Trump administration while the world looks on in disbelief as Trump ignores friends and cozies up to dictators.
26
@JT FLORIDA
Was this the intended result of meddling in our election, feeding fear and conspiracy theories to get a "uniquely unqualified" man (*) elected?
* thank you, Pres. Obama.
Conservatives, like Pence, are willing pawns of Russian pawns like Herr Trump. They do this because a backward social agenda that is anti-progress. Trump does what he does either because Putin and his mobsters have something on him or he is a willing participant in de-constructing American democracy. Name one thing Trump has done that hasn't benefited Putin and his oligarchs! All while conservatives cheer and Republicans thump their chests about their victories in gerrymandering or crowd manipulation.
36
@Rocketscientist I guess that's why we keep sending missile systems and heavy armament into Ukraine so they can kill more Russians. That's a great way for Trump to show he's in the pocket of the Kremlin.
Odd part of this is that it was Obama who pulled out the missile systems to appease the Kremlin...and didn't do anything while his henchmen were running fake social media campaigns.
it's almost as if Obama was an agent of Russia.
This is good what trump has accomplished for Europe. They can now peruse unfettered global cooperationist policies without cow towering to Washington myopic hegemony.
6
The US seems to be doomed to have poor leadership.
Trump is not a competent president.
It seems that Pence would be as bad or perhaps worse than Trump.
16
I do not think that all is lost but there will be repercussions that will extend into the future. For one, the F-35 program will be an issue. NATO must spend more money bit I am betting that most Europeans would rather buy their own than American. Then if you consider that everyday the White House spouts lies how is it that anybody should believe the Huawei narrative regarding 5G network. It’s actually more likely that the story being pedaled is false and nothing more than an attempt by the USA to suppress technology for their own. Huawei is not stealing tech and monitoring the internet. How is that for a challenge. Trump should provide proof that this is not the same as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. I suspect that before long Israel and the Saudis will produce proof of nuclear weapons in Iran. Then the American public will get whipped up for another war. Of course you will be on your own because there will be no proof required to convince anybody wilth sense to join in. Please think carefully about what is going on. The Commander in Cheif is a pathological liar and it applies to everything. How is the China, Iran, narrative believable when every day he lies about the smallest things. God help us all.
15
Trans-Atlantic cooperation and the free-world's values are gone in our Trumpian dystopia. The Munich Security Conference, as a unifying force in Europe is past its sell-by date. Vice President Pence -- Donald Trump's blinkered emissary, showed his unfitness to lead America. The world heard his obsequious greeting from our dreadful president fall on deaf ears. Total silence underscored how reviled our president is in today's Europe. Ivanka and Jared Kushner (charming and churlish) represented Ivanka's Father in Germany. We are Fortress Americana now in our country, thanks to the malign leadership of our 45th President. Our former partnership with NATO and Trans-Atlantic cooperation are being sundered by President Trump and his Make America Great Again nationalistic hordes.
13
@Nan Socolow What partnership via NATO is there to have with Germany when they've already cast their lot with Russia with this energy deal?
How stupid do we have to be to ask what good NATO is if the largest member of NATO in the EU is already tethered to Moscow?
All Moscow has to do is turn off the gas switch and all of Germany will be learning how to speak Russian.
Our role with NATO has to be based on Germany, France, the UK and other members doing their fair share instead of freeloading the system while doing back end deals with the enemy.
2
"Europe to Mike Pence" should read "European Bureaucrats to Mike Pence".
2
The Times news article on Pence's speech started with the most telling photo in recent memory: Pence was on stage walking just ahead of Merkel, the backs of both of his wrists and his knees awkwardly lifted high, akimbo, in the air - a true marionette. The question of the hour: is Pence a marionette solely to Trump, trying to keep his job so that he ascends to the presidency near the end of this term when Trump gets indicted, or is Putin, and Putin alone, pulling the strings?
19
Nobody elected Ivanka and Jared to represent us. Congress did not appoint them to represent us. Most Americans are ashamed that they are squatting in the White House making money. They bring nothing that is useful or inspiring or worth emulating. The US is just another pretty plaything for the trump spawn.
Meanwhile, McConnell plays god.
105
Nothing can come soon enough to undo this Presidency and heal its indiscriminate damage to the interest of life on this globe.
22
Trump and Pence have made us international pariahs. It seems to me that Trump's sole purpose is to do Putin's bidding. Like the old record label, His Master's Voice.
The revelation during the McCabe 60 minute interview that during an intel. briefing Trump trusts Putin's assessment more than the FBI is an eye opener. He said the same thing openly at Helsinki. He is no longer ashamed to admit this.
I remember that during the waning days of the Obama administration, when Obama imposed severe sanctions on Russia, Trump tweeted that Putin was wise and clever not to retaliate. The only reason Trump pulled out of Syria is that Putin told him to do so, confirmed by Putin's congratulations. Gen. Mattis saw through this and immediately resigned. He was too patriotic to take orders from Putin and Russia.
Putin has now become Trump's Rasputin and by inference our nation. When Putin tells Trump to jump, his only question is 'how high'? This President has reduced our nation to servitude in the worst way.
27
The only silver lining from this grotesque debacle was Joe Biden, standing as a responsible, serious American leader and in contrast to the Trump team's arrogance and ignorance. While offering constructive challenges for NATO, Biden also was respectful and diplomacy-oriented. "This too shall pass. We will be back," Biden is reported to have said. Let's hope so. The world is counting on it. That would truly make America great again!
25
@NM
I often wonder if Biden is a vicious man pretending be be decent.
2
Germany can elect to buy natural gas from Russia and open up trade with Iran all they want. They can also buy some rifles for their service members if they get a chance and maybe actually repair a few of their tanks to actual running status and launch their much talked about European Army. What they can't do anymore is take advantage of the American taxpayer or consumer. So are the taxpayers supposed to have their feelings hurt because Merkel wants to cozy up to Putin and Macron instead of our American President? We will get over it I assure you.
4
How exactly are they taking advantage of the US taxpayer? You think all that military spending goes to NATO? Think again! Check where all those carriers are located. Not a single one in the Atlantic. US spends far less than % of gdp for NATO. The European spend around 3 times as much as the Russians. If that is not enough, whom exactly are they defending against?
6
The Trump administration wants to do just what they want, never mind what anyone else thinks? Well, so should our European (one-time and again future) allies. No caving to hectoring from Trump or his mouthpiece, Pence! They can dish it but they can't take it.
7
I cannot understand why Trump and Republicans generally want Iran to have nuclear weapons. They have torn up the U.S.'s participation in the one agreement - which remains in place and effective - precluding Iran from obtaining such weapons. Maybe their strategy is to bait Iran into building such weapons, and then use that fact as a pretext for the US and Israel to attack Iran. Nothing would encourage Iran to actually build such weapons more than that strategy would.
The unilateralism, narrow-mindedness, and foolishness of the U.S.'s decision vis-a-vis the Iran Agreement is bad enough. But to encourage a regime like Iran to develop nuclear weapons is terrible policy indeed. Theocracies especially (like Iran) should not be encouraged to develop nuclear weapons at all.
8
@AM
For once, let's be honest here. Obama's Iran deal was full of holes (among other things). The biggest hole was prohibition of inspections at the exact places where nuclear weapons were, in fact, proven to be being built: anything the government of Iran labeled a "military instillation." Remind me again, what designations the U.S. have Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. Iran going nuclear weapons.. Europeans didn't care and turned a blind eye.. They just wanted Iranian money and oil. The "new" Europe is even a bigger mess and more potentially dangerous to the world than the old Europe.
2
Germany did what it did to itself. They ran to Russia to buy their natural gas and I’m sure one day they will regret that decision. America has been subsidizing many of their social programs by paying for a disproportionate share of the military defense. It’s time for them to own up and stop complaining.
5
@J
In Germany there is a large majority that does not believe in the equation „more weapons=more security“. That is a way of thinking that humanity won‘t survive.
The future can only be mastered with more brains and subsequenrly less weapons.
5
I think the Europeans are finally realizing that they will have to open their pocketbooks and pay for their own defense because the US is no longer the freebie military they’re used to. I think that’s fine. The Germans have plenty of money but they are really cheap. I think they’re getting the message.
4
Mike Pence has spent the last three years seeing and hearing no evil from his, in my view, evil superior, and needless to say, it's an embarrassment to have the president's daughter and the husband few have mentioned as being there at all representing the country with titles that lack credentials.
It says volumes that none of them appeared to anticipate a negative reaction to being lectured to by the president's toadstool when they have made it perfectly clear how they feel about his highness's defections. Not only are those in Trump's inner circle laughably entitled, but inexperienced, ignorant or oblivious to history and clueless when it comes to the art of managing international relationships, including the dictators they naively imagine are impressed and not manipulating them at every opportunity.
One hopes that Europe understands that the frightening power of the presidency belongs to man who is not supported by the majority of Americans, who like Mr. Cohen are hoping that they stand up for the ethics, democratic norms and yes values this rogue president is doing his best to alter beyond recognition.
21
Apparently Trump found out that European leadership liked Obama. That's enough to make them enemies in Trump's book.
21
Look for the president to assign that smooth talking, silver tongued Stephen Miller to patch over any problems with the EU.
8
I am curious, why does the NYT always side with the Europeans over the Americans as if they are some beacon of rationality? I am no fan of Trump and I’m no fan of his policies but it’s clear that the Europeans have been disingenuous in their relations with us, and have been taking advantage of us in trade and defense. Why doesn’t the New York Times have the ability to present an even handed account of this. I blame Europeans for taking advantage of us for so long and our politicians for putting up with it that we ended up with the Trump who has gone too far.
You could point out that Merkel’s assertion that “the biggest current plant for BMW is in South Carolina” is extremely disingenuous, we all know profits still flow back to Germany and plenty of cars are sent over from Germany to the United States, the plant is only here as a decoy. Why is that so hard to say?
5
@Paul
By doing what you suggest might imply that some of what Trump says might be right, and that is something the NY Times has a hard time with.
1
@Paul
What about the thousands of pay ckeques American employees receive from BMW in SC?
3
@P. Fast
Good point -- And the exact same one Chancellor Merkel brought up in München.
3
Will those people who voted for Trump be satisfied that he has "shaken things up" enough with four years of embarrassing misrule and self-dealing? Will they feel vindicated that now lots more people feel pain like they claim to do? Are they satisfied with photos of children in cages at the border, and the reports that some of those children will never see their parents again? Will they notice that he has done nothing to solve their opioid crisis? Doubt it.
It is imperative that we elect someone else, someone not crazy and crazy greedy, next time. And it had better not be a republican either. You feel like you are watching a modern version of "the Fall of the Roman Empire" with Trump.
16
Since Day One, Trump has been fighting to tear down our relationships with our NATO allies and warming up to hostile dictators around the world. How is this not treason?
16
Europe may have been neutered for good. Its denizens are – perhaps from history of pain, embrace of welfare systems – so used to avoiding confrontation that ducking has become part of their DNA.
For long, they were protected by the big nanny, The U of S. What Trump has done is called spade a spade and asked them to pay for the nanny.
Europe may brandish Russia and China as alternatives. But such will be the hand-twisting there, that they will wail in no time.
In this vacuum, as the article mentions and as created by the new US position, Europe is vulnerable. This will come into light glisteningly after Merkel departs, and Brexit completes.
The Vivaldi-Mozart-Chopin symphony is over.
2
They should just ignore Trump like he does not exist,and ask e the US military leave europe. Trump would blink and fold real quick.
7
Wake up America, this is us. One could win a lot of rubles betting that the majority of Americans couldn't care less about our alliances.
1
Personally, I'm GREATLY encouraged by Europe's rebuke of America under the Trump administration. Angry Europeans seem FAR saner than do too many Americans, including nearly all Republicans in government, who have revealed themselves to be nothing more than self-obsessed hypocrites with little if any regard for healthy liberal democracy. Now we know.
Note to Europe: Many Americans detest Trump, Pence, and McTurtle, et al. at least as much as you do. Your protests are music to our ears. Keep it up, and thank you for your service. Oh, and: We're sorry.
38
I have to know what the 35-40% of America, that are Trump's hardcore supporters get out of all of this?
6
The sanctimonious Pence lecturing the western world on the righteousness of The Great Orange One's policies was not applauded. Good for Europe. Now about that impeachment or 25th amendment stuff. Let us hope Pious Pence actually ascends into heaven with his holier- than- thou halo, Trump is impeached, I prefer jailed, and Mitch McConnell stamps his little feet so hard when Pelosi becomes president, that he is forever stuck in place. Then the dark clouds will leave our skies and America can get back to the business of making America great again, this time for all of us.
18
A number of Trumpistas below are mocking germany and echoing Trump's talking point about germany and other Euro countries owing us or NATO money.
In WW2, the Germans only got beaten when they were seriously outnumbered and after we established air superiority.. That was true on the Western and Eastern Fronts. It was true in Africa and Italy.
If the Russians had not been willing to take enormous casualties at a highly disprportionate rate, right until the end of the war, Germany could not have been defeated short of using Atom bombs.
During the Cold War, Germany maintained a draft- and there were no deferments. They had a first class Army, Navy and AF.
Whe the Iron Curtain was falling, the German Defense Ministry announced in no uncertain terms that a "...Tianneman Square solution would be unacceptable in Central Europe...". In other words, if the Stasi started shooting the Bundeswehr was marching East-with or without NATPO OK.b
Moreover, currently we are spending much money on defending Europe-or more precisely defending our strategic position in Europe agaisnt Russia. Most of the Navy is in the Pacfic or the Gulf/ Indian Ocean. Elsewhere than the North Atlantic, anyway. Our Army in Europe has been greatly reduced. Our main efforts by the Army and Marines have been Iraq and Afghanistan.
2
@Lefthalfbach currently we are NOT spending much money defending Europe is what I meant to say. Sorry.
4
Since 1992, the past 26 years, America has had a Republican president twice, for 12 years, and both those times the Republican was elected only by electoral vote. Hopeful Europe knows America is here and not really buying our current, temporary president's attitude or policy.
6
There have been two disastrous presidencies, Bush the younger and now Trump, that were won by a minority of the votes in the United States.
For Europe the first was much worse in it's destabilizing effects than the second, at least so far. (Think of the refugee fear, mostly exaggerated, that brings in nonsensical disorganized populist parties here.)
Each western country has its share of people who have been cheated out of stable jobs by the hyper capitalistic globalized economy of the last decades. Some vote for social democratic parties to better their fate, and others for xenophobic populist parties.
The US stands out by having NO social democratic party to choose from in its two party system. That leaves only the Republicans, who have eagerly filled the remaining xenophobic populist niche. Add to that the unique US system that gives a strong electoral advantage to the victims of hyper capitalism who often live in scarcely populated rural states.
As long as the two party system, the electoral college, and the insularity of many rural Americans remain the same, we cannot trust there to be rational and functioning American governments in the years to come.
As changing the constitution seems harder than changing the laws that Mozes brought down fom mount Horeb, perhaps the best idea is to give all US highschool graduates a passport, a train pass for Canada, Europe, Korea, Japan etc. and a gap year to experience other developed democratic countries for comparison.
29
Reading Wold Order by Henry Kissinger I saw this citation from F D Roosevelt’s 4th inaugural speech in 1945 I thought about what America once was and hopefully can be again.
We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that “The only way to have a friend is to be one”. We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear.
25
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
But USA and Russia are not enemies, Trump is definitely toying with idea of either Putin or China as a new major ally, so Europe cannot really do much. The other thing is, something that Europe remember but Trump probably never bother to think about, is that Russia is Putin. You do not deal with Russia, you deal with Putin. If he, suddenly a Tuesday morning, are no longer there, the political landscape changes immediately into something that might or might not be completely different. Normally you'd be careful with an ally like that. The alliance between USA and Europe was strong because no one could really imagine that things could change so drastically and quickly as it has with Trump as a conductor. I assume Europe will, together with Japan, flirt with both Russia and China without actually going to bed with them.
6
Funny these countries can't see the Trump Presidency for what it is- an obscure anomaly. The fact they are so quick to cut and run leads me to believe they were always ready to do this. If they are that thin skinned and impatient- then let's dissolve NATO and have them go at it alone.
2
@Aaron
It might be an obscure anomaly, but it is also a very distinct reality. There is no guarantee that this "anomaly" will not be repeated next election and, above all, Europe now knows that the US cannot be trusted. But I do however fear that NATO will be dissolved and that for the remainder of the existence of the human race we will be busy building nukes while the planet is melting.
10
@Aaron
Let the offense to be given come from Trump only and let's not go there Aaron.
1
It's extremely sad and disheartening to watch this once powerful, respected (and respectful) alliance, which took decades to build, unravel in a matter of months at the hands of this monster. What's even more depressing is watch McConnell and other GOP "leaders" not only allow it to happen, but enable, aid and abet the process.
And all this while praising folks like Putin. It's simply treasonous on all their parts.
44
@J Darby . Allow me a minor variation: It's extremely sad and disheartening to watch this once powerful, respected United States of America, which took centuries to build, unravel in a matter of months at the hands of this monster.
24
The sad thing is that Pence probably considers his speech a success because he received applause from Ivanka & Jared. Never mind Europe or the world, it's all about pleasing an audience of ONE.
99
Trump's ego is such that he isn't simply intent on making America worse, it is that he feels the need to reek havoc across the globe. As we abandon one ally after another, they all still have each other. At what point will the GOP wake up and realize that the damage Trump is doing is well on its way to becoming irreversible?
33
@Jon Creamer,
Hurry up Mueller!
10
@Jon Creamer . Hi Jon. From where I sit/see things the damage is done and may well be irreversible. Just maybe some future leader will be able to rebuild some level of trust. But for now esteem for America is shattered. What is now exposed is the chronic flaws in your democracy. The vote rigging, gerrymanders, partisan extremism. Fox News, fake news, opponent vilification, racial problems, inequality at every level of society.
Donald Trump has opened up all the faultlines for all the world to see. Your nations enemies are pleased at the outcome. Your friends are shocked and appalled.
6
What Trump, and also Putin obviously dont't get: In case the Western alliances break up, the final result will be a nuclear armed Germany, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, [...], and not least South Korea, and Japan. In fact, these two will start to built the bomb the day they feel they can no longer rely on the US nuclear deterrent. With nuclear armed North Korea, China, and Russia at their doorstep, and with no intent of letting anybody bully them into anything, they will have no other choice. I bet, they have done some crucial work already. Hence it would take them only a year or so until they have that thing.
We Germans could hold out a few years, or even a decade under French protection, but not forever. Not under British protection, however. Especially the Tories would throw us - or anyone for that matter - under the bus without a second thought, if it would help them win an election. Anyway, would be a brave new world, wouldn't it?
7
@Albert Neunstein,
Pardon me but this is ridiculous. Chemical weapons are the way to go. The Russians were making great progress towards nerve gases that could penetrate any suit. Chemical and biological weapons are a poor man's nuke.
1
@Rocketscientist
Re: Chemical Weapons
If enough people stop immunizing their children and the US loses herd immunity, there will be no need of sophisticated chemical warfare, just a release of some deadly old flu strain or previously eradicated disease in strategic locations to set in panic and weaken the nation.
3
Understandable, given the circumstance of the current White House and their preference for divisive propaganda. Still, tangibles remain that ultimately vitiate the facile nihilism that seems in vogue in Washington--namely, our demographics, our institutions, however newly, and temporarily, degraded, and our ultimate commitment, as a nation, to democracy, no matter the Republican tendency to the contrary. These will prevail, as will our alliances, no matter the current provocations and pretensions to power we witness today.
2
If 2020 brings a Democratic Presidential win I hope that the first to be asked to be Secretary of State is President Obama. It would be a lot to ask but he may be the best choice to get the world to trust America again. Even a two year commitment would be enough to right many wrongs or at least get our Diplomatic machine back and operating. Again it’s lot to ask of this man and his family but he fully understands the world and the dangerous position we have entered.
206
@Dave
A position for which many people feel that he helped lay the groundwork.
He is just too good-hearted for this kind of job.
12
@Dave
that's a really good idea... thank you.. hadn't thought of it in my delirious wish he were still POTUS
14
@Dave
This gave me hope. And I need it.
10
[[[ To sense animus to America’s vice president in this temple to Western unity is to measure how effectively Trump has taken a sledgehammer to America’s European alliances — ]]]
Wow, Mr Cohen,you hit the nail on the head....
I wonder how much penance the Trumpet, the Pensive Pawn, and the young 'uns Kushner will need to atone for their affront to the European establishment?
Correct. The USA is far from being the "leader" of the free world.
23
It’s a perfect moment for the new world order.
Nobody knows how it’s going to look like. Nobody has the vision or ability to grasp the big picture. Nobody can predict all the problems that are going to unfold.
The NATO is just an obsolete bureaucratic organization, a paper tiger…
If the Trump Administration attacked Iran, would any NATO member commit unconditionally and at all cost to winning this conflict?
This is the profit-controlled world. Everybody is thinking about their bottom line, exactly like the Trump Administration, in short term. Everybody’s blindfolded.
Europe is no different. If the US military has been subsidized by the European countries, they would be breaking up the relationship in the exactly same way.
The unilateralism is cutting both ways. Slashing the military protection of the EU by the USA will cause the European financial institutions to stop saving in the dollars or using it for the monetary transactions.
The Brexit will cost the Great Britain of having London as the financial center of the Old Continent…
It is an interconnected world. We just cannot figure out correctly how much we are dependent on each other.
The globe is so much in debt that nobody knows what could trigger the next meltdown.
It is crazy idea that the developing China is lending the money to America…
The world is a gigantic Rubik cube. Whoever claims they know how to bring it in order, rest assured they are lying!
We are going to live in a multi-polar world...
1
“Going on one’s own,” Merkel suggested, makes no sense in a world demanding multilateral solutions."
If the Trump Administration is seeking solutions, multilateral or otherwise, it is doing so in an inept and ineffective manner, resorting to the worst of US foreign policy ideas dredged up from the worst of failed advisors like John Bolton and Elliott Abrahms.
In an unintended way, the multilateral organizations like the UN and NATO, long dominated by US money and policy, might actually benefit from a little less of it in the future.
With our uneven history in the Middle East and Latin America, and a current President who deliberately insults, offends and punishes allies, perhaps the title "Leader of the Free World" has become obsolete.
Pence has demonstrated he is prepared to take up the mantle of international pariah, should the Trump term end prematurely.
And Russia must be pleased that Trump is pushing Europe back in the Russian direction, enhancing the role of Russia in the "Dawn of Eurasia", the title of a new book by Bruno Macaes about the growing integration of the supercontinent.
Too bad Trump doesn't read. His statements about practically everything suggest he doesn't do so well in math, either.
30
In response to pointofdiscovery
The heartland16m ago
Regardless of the policy positions of the US, we have always had respectful relationships with other countries. Until now.
Reply16
Was it respectful in our relationship with Iran to organize a coup that toppled its democratic government ?
15
We in the UK are suffering the catastrophe of Brexit. This ultimately may be more damaging to peace, security, and democratic values in Europe than the current US administration. At lease you guys have the opportunity to reverse some of the damage in 2020 - Please do it right!
263
@Pat
The UK could drop the whole Article 50 debacle with a simple letter anytime until March 28...the Scots and N. Irish, and probably the Welsh, certainly are not going to stop you. It is a little harder to dump trump.
1
I lived in Germany for four years and I continue to visit on a regular basis Their national priorities are running the largest export balance possible and getting the US taxpayer to provide for their national defense so that they can run budget surpluses.
7
@Jesse James It must be reassuring to you to find that the US's bloated defense budget had a spare 3 billion in it to shift towards that life saving wall on the southern border. As your president said, after speaking to a couple of unnamed Generals, he didn't think the money was targeted at anything important.
51
@Jesse James
No offense, but it looks like you didn't learn much by living there if that's all you can come up with.
As the largest economy in Europe, Germany is doing well enough without the U.S.
17
@Jesse James
Maybe Germany does not see the world as dangerous a place as the US. does. Based on their 20th. century history very few Europeans want Germany to have big army. If that is the way you feel about Germany, why do you back on a regular basis. I would not!
1
I have done my share of questioning American foreign policy since came here 5-plus decades ago but having grown up in the UK during WW II and its aftermath, I appreciate the value of the Altantic alliance and America's role in it. My only doubts about it arose when Nato expanded to Russia's doorstep following the collapse of the Soviet empire. I still think that was a mistake and an opportunity wasted because it needlessly provoked a reaction from Russian nationalists. Not surprisingly, it fueled the rise of Putin and his crony capitalist associates - most of them former Soviet apparatchiks, opportunists all who now have both power and riches, having ripped off the state's former assets for the price of a bottle of cheap vodka.
Anyway, that's in the past, so what do we do now? One thing not to do is weaken transatlantic institutions and alliances, which is exactly Putin's objective in his continuation of the Cold War. The only difference between Cold War then and Cold War now is that then, the Russians cultivated the western Left to do their bidding, not very successfully. Now they are cultivating the Right, and as far as the US is concerned, it's working like gang-busters, all the way up to the White House. Collusion or no collusion in the election campaign, the WH is now effectively Kremlin West.
50
It's bad to try to predict a future with so many variables in play. We should not hold back on impeachment if that's where the evidence leads. If Pence were to ascend to the presidency it would be with the full knowledge of how he got there: via Trump's demise which included a tainted election of himself. The first removal is hard, subsequent ones become routine.
12
@Denis
How far have we gotten from the 2nd debate when only Trump was asked if he would accept the result of the Election? So if you succeed in reversing the results of this election, you think reversing others will be easier? And you think there is some chance you will Impeach this President? Why don't you try accepting the results of the Election and see how that works out for you?
1
@GregP
This is America and we don't have to accept anything, especially a tainted election, thanks, Vladimir. Time only moves forward and there is no reversing an election or even a bad haircut. But as a free people we built a Constitution that provides for removing someone who proves to be a tyrant or otherwise incapable lug.
5
I’m sorry but I’m not a Trump because I’m looking at facts: Germany has been behind its NATO contributions for years. Instead of 2% of their GNP, they (maybe I should say “we” because I’m German) are only paying 1,2%, which translates into tens of billions of euros every year. This is the money that goes into large scale bullet train projects, cost free studies at German universities, etc. I find it hugely unfair to see my American students going into extensive and sometimes lifelong debts to pay for college while German students study for free and America is expected to bear the brunt of NATO expenses. As to cars, German cars enter the American market at less than 3% tax, while American cars are taxed in Germany by 10%. Is this fair? Trump speaks out some unpleasant truths that should be heeded.
14
@Georg Schwarzmann
Well, maybe if the tax rates were restored to 1950's levels and good ole American companies spent on re-tooling factories in the 70s instead of chasing down the lowest wage and anti-union southern states, we wouldn't be arguing these points.
72
@Georg Schwarzmann
Apples to oranges. There are quite literally hundreds of universities in the US and, on average, it's much easier for Americans to get admitted to a university than is true in Germany. If the same percentage of Germans were being allowed into the system, I suspect the German taxpayer would think twice about free higher education.
18
@Georg Schwarzmann
Trump may speak some uncomfortable truths, but one reason college students go into debt is because "we" spend so many tax dollars on military/"defense" - yet, even as Trump is looking to pull us out of Afghanistan and Syria, etc., he is not cutting - but , in fact, upping the miltary budget. And Congress seems happy to go along.
39
"As the crowd rose in unison to give Merkel a standing ovation, the president’s daughter remained seated."
I confess that I gasped at this - a little gasp, but a gasp nonetheless. I wonder whether this ostentatious disrespect to Chancellor Merkel resulted from filial obedience or whether Ivanka came to it herself. It doesn't really matter - either way, we see the petty churlishness of this White House. But it speaks volumes - if Trump can will an action so small, does anyone imagine that the US's non-transactional solidarity with its allies remains?
428
@cjw
I'm trying to remember the last time a U.S. president chose his unqualified (in every sense) relatives as delegates to such an event, rather than well-qualified state department people. Still trying....nope, came up empty. And really, does anyone expect anyone named Trump to have decent manners?
125
@cjw
Agreed. Ivanka who? Don't remember electing her.
56
@inner city girl
And I don’t remember her getting Senate hearings and approval, either.
11
As the article mentions, here in South Carolina BMW has a major manufacturing facility, as do other foreign corporation like Mercedes, Fuji, Volvo, etc. The South Carolina Department of Commerce regularly courts foreign companies, something former governor Nikki Haley made a priority (as does our current governor, Henry McMaster).
And yet a large majority of South Carolinians voted for President Trump, and support his tariffs and cutting trade ties with foreign governments. The cognitive dissonance is difficult to understand. Even if the election in 2020 normalizes our relations with Germany and Europe, they may never fully trust the United States again.
In many ways, we have become a hostile, rogue nation. I wouldn't be surprised if foreign countries (under the auspices of the U.N.) impose future sanctions on us. The great irony of that, though, is it would further bolster President Trump's support, and confirm the "us versus them" mentality that he - like authoritarian leaders worldwide - is so expert at exploiting.
280
@jrinsc Cognitive dissonance is difficult to understand? Maybe, but ignorance isn't.
14
"The cognitive dissonance is difficult to understand."
One has to have a functioning cerebral cortex for cognitive processes to occur, be they harmonious or dissonant. I think you are giving the tRumpette hordes way too much credit.
11
It is dissonance but it is not cognitive. These SC Trumpers and their midwestern brothers who are getting crushed with retaliatory farm tariffs are synchronized and consonant on two fronts - they all hated Hilary in 2016 and they are most concerned with Supreme Court dominance. They can do the math of 5 justices out of 9 to get gay, abortion and other hot button issues addressed. They are not forward thinking enough to do the math on military budgets, tax cuts, deficits and trade tariffs.
7
Regardless of the policy positions of the US, we have always had respectful relationships with other countries. Until now.
110
Our strategic frontier is the Atlantic coast of France. Our outpost line is the Elbe. It is in our interest to be in Europe.
The only country gaining from the current disarray is Russia. What a shock!
153
@Lefthalfbach
and China. Sigh.
9
Yes, yes, yes, we all dislike Trump but I wouldn't exactly idealize supposed German multilateralism, or as Roger Cohen calls it, German "Gaullism." The Germans started cutting energy deals with the Soviets decades ago at the height of the Cold War, when the U.S. had considerably more military based on the front lines of a NATO whose financial burdens were NOT equitably share by West Germany at the time or other European members. And "Mutti" Merkel's lectures have become considerably less charming to many other EU members who have witnessed Berlin's dealings with the Greek debt crisis, Russia's aggression against Ukraine (lots of expressions of "deep concern" but little else), and the very unilateral German government grandstanding and virtue-signaling during the chaotic migrant flows from the Middle East. Add to that Berlin's riding roughshod over Scandinavian, Eastern European, and now French concerns over the second natural gas pipeline that will deepen European energy dependence on the Putin regime. When you read the German press you will be subjected to lots of facile moralizing but at the end of the day it's all about the "handel" [trade].
9
@Peter When the US looks around for help versus China, don't go looking Europe's way.
74
@abo
To what end? If we need suggestions for a carbon tax you might be able to offer some but what else would we be calling on Europe for?
5
@Peter Really? West Germany had half a million guys under arms, America had only a quarter million soldiers in Germany. Defense spending per capita was nearly as high. Given the fact that Germany had no, and was not supposed to have things like aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, or god forbid a strategic force this was quite remarkable. Every somewhat healthy German man had to serve as a conscript. Including myself! Just like most of my fellow (West-) Germans, and other than most Americans of my age, I stood guard on the rims of the free world during the cold war. Was not always funny! So don't tell me anything about a shared, or not shared burden.
91
I agree with Joe Biden. We will be back. I think most Americans and most Europeans want our former relationships. I think most people feel safer when they know organizations like NATO have our backs. I do think America will reach out a hand in friendship again one day...as soon as Trump and the Republicans are voted out of office.
435
@Linda
I agree. Anyone would rather be friends with an economic powerhouse that's devoted to human rights and fairness than with one that isn't. We showed resoundingly in the last elections that our current executive isn't who we are, and I'm optimistic about 2020. The problem in 2016, I think, wasn't a shift in America's nature but rather apathy. And apathy (thank you Mr. Trump) is a thing of the past now.
15
@Linda
The world has seen how much damage can be done in two years between a truly awful POTUS and a kowtowing GOP.
What has been exposed to the rest of the world is how weak our form of government is when the people running it don't have our country's and our (former) allies' best interests at heart.
There is absolutely no reason that the Europeans will be inclined to welcome us back. This goes in the "Fool me one, shame on you - fool me twice - shame on me" bucket.
39
@Linda
We will be back, but I don’t think we will ever be the leader again. It’s like after an affair l, and he gives up his mistress, you may agree to go on with the marriage, but you’ll never, ever fully trust him again.
9
I am glad Angela Merkel finally got energized. She never takes the initiative, always waiting for the public to sort things out for her, which is not necessarily bad, but it leads to atrophied skills when decisions are being forced on a leader. And in 2015 she made a disastrous one, which gave rise to right wing Eurosceptic parties and Brexit. She may even be responsible for pushing the 2016 election over the edge and given it to Trump, through her "handling" of the migrant crisis. Trump exploited that during his campaign and she gave him the necessary credibility.
She has not shown any competence when it comes to planning the energy supply of the future. That's why electricity in German costs 4 times as much than in the US and CO2 emissions INCREASE instead of decrease. You can build as many windmills as you want, if the grid can't take it and you switch of clean nuclear power at the same time.
It is high time for Merkel to be replaced by rational leader who is competent. The problem is: WHO?
14
@Kara Ben Nemsi
Emissions are down since 1990, a bit flat in the last three years. Lots of great fact sheets here about actual
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts
Link provided to site only by me, no changes made.
All texts created by the Clean Energy Wire are available under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0)” . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
Dossiers
This Factsheet is part of the following Dossiers:
Germany's energy transition in the European context
Bioenergy - the troubled pillar of the Energiewende
Germany's Energiewende: The Easy Guide
Power production at sea re-emerges as Energiewende cornerstone
Political uncertainty weighs heavily on energy policy crunch time year for Germany
19
@Kara Ben Nemsi Noted, but when Germany's nuclear fusion reactor comes online and finally meets expectations, look out! Unlimited and cheap eco-energy for all. I suspect any other route is just a stop-gap until the dream of fusion finally arrives (about 10-15 years, as an optimist!).
4
@Dana T
Angela Merkel was actually in favor of nuclear energy, but she folded like a rag doll after Fukushima. The curves in the link you are showing make my point exactly: nuclear energy going down, fossil fuels not having budged one bit. What she should have done is switch off all coal plants and build up nuclear energy. Germany would be a truly low carbon economy by now, had she done that.
As with all things political, the devil lies in the details of interpretation. Just look at the total energy generation capacity. That DOUBLED since 2002, while energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions essentially remained flat since the recession.
How is that possible? Well, Germany built up its renewable capacity alright, but it can't USE that power at home, because it is 1) intermittent, and 2) there are no power lines to transport it from the North to the South.
So what does Germany do? It buys NUCLEAR power from France and fossil power from the East, while PAYING Poland for renewable electricity it takes in from Germany!
No wonder Germans are paying 4 times as much for electricity than Americans.
Of course, one can generate these kinds of graphs, if one lies by omission, but they don't reflect the reality. The Poles are happy to build coal plants that won't show up on German graphs.
Trump is not the only one who has invented fake news.
1
It's more than a little incongruous that as Donald Trump continues praising himself for supposed diplomacy with North Korea, he eschews diplomacy with our actual allies.
391
This is horrible. Trump has built a wall alright. He built a wall around Europe and he didn't have to lay a single brick. In two short years, Trump has managed to undermine the greatest alliance the modern world has ever seen. An alliance that has kept the peace and provided prosperity for over 70 years.
In doing so, Trump has not only embarrassed our nation, he has alienated our best friends. He has stabbed them in the back. He has rendered our word worthless. Our treaties, our agreements mean nothing.
As for Mike Pence, I am thoroughly convinced that I have been 100% wrong about him. I thought he behaved this way because he was kowtowing to Trump. He was just being a good lapdog. No, I was wrong. Pence is as messed up as Trump is. He is just as bad. May even be worse.
I thought Trump was the Anti-Christ. It beginning to look like Pence should get that title. Trump doesn't know what he is talking about. Pence does and he believes it, all of it, and with bible in hand.
Can it happen here? It already has. We have a true demagog at the top, who is an ignoramus. A vice demagog, who is God powered and truly believes all of idiocy he speaks. An official state information department and state phoney news organization that rivals Joseph Goebbels in its lies and false propaganda, and worst of all, a duly elected branch of government that has acquiesced to all of it and a stacked court system that enforces it.
Pence and Jarvanka just proved it, all of it.
1421
@Bruce Rozenblit. The words right out of my mouth. Get rid of them both. I can’t believe we have 2 more years....
135
Today we also have Lindsay Graham talking about getting to the bottom of anti Trump sentiment in the DOJ and FBI. And McConnell the stage manager seeking to pad his pockets and destroy representative government as efficiently as possible in the event he should lose power in the next elective go round.
And yes, Pence is a lapdog, the kind with conditioned responses, and sharp teeth,
166
@Bruce Rozenblit I believe everything you said is thoughtful and correct with one exception. The wall Trump and Pence have built is around the US, not Europe. Europe will continue with their alliances as the other former friends and allies of the US will continue their outreach to form new trade agreements and stronger ties with other countries. Meanwhile, the US continues to shrink its global footprint and leadership roles, but that's what walls do.
213
Watching Mike Pence launch into his finger-wagging tirade in the name of Donald Trump at this conference was enough to convince me that we've lost our European allies -- and possibly for good.
With his recent unilateral decisions involving tariffs, pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan, denying climate change, and most recently abrogating the INF Treaty, this is clearly a president who doesn't recognize the limitations of his office, let alone when he's taken a step too far.
But Angela Merkel does.
And taking full advantage of the fact that this is her last go-round as Chancellor, she let Mr. Pence and the world know where she stands, and just how outraged she is at what's going on with the U.S. and in the White House.
At least in that regard, she's not alone.
781
@N. Smith She is not. FWIW, I'm with Merkel.
18
The USA's traditional allies in Europe, like members of Trump's own cabinet and the US military, are just going to have to learn to ignore Trump (and his mouthpiece Pence) until Trump's stay in the Oval Office is over (one way or another). There is no point in even discussing anything with Trump. He's hopeless.
348
@Jay Orchard
It is very difficult to ignore someone tearing down your house. Let's face it, Trump is foreign policy disaster. The Russians and the Chinese couldn't have gotten a more destructive partner if they could have chosen one.
39
@LES
Didn't they choose one?
16
@LES From all accounts, Russia was involved in choosing him...
25
Okay, Trump voters, are you proud of yourselves?
Are you proud that your president kowtows to dictators?
Are you proud that your president takes his orders directly from Putin?
Are you proud that your president disavows intelligence gained from the FBI and CIA, and publicly states that he believes Putin over them?
Are you proud that your president has destroyed alliances with our western and NATO partners, alliances that it took this country decades to create, and will take decades to restore?
Are you proud that your president has alienated our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, for a trading deal that no better than the one we already had?
Are you proud that your president has made our country an international laughing stock? Try traveling outside the U.S. for once. Everyone around the world is rightfully laughing at us.
Are you proud that your president has made our nation an international pariah, and that we will have no one to turn to for help when, at some point, we will surely need it?
Are you proud that your president has declared a national emergency for something that exists only in his mind? Oh yes, I’ve forgotten. You are indeed proud of this. Because all you wanted was a president who parroted your racism, your bigotry, your xenophobia. But understand this – the rest of us know what you have done to our country. You have sacrificed its international reputation and its valuable alliances, just to satisfy your selfishness. And our patient is wearing very thin.
1501
@Orion Clemens Yeeeep! [Hock spit]
13
Don't forget gynophobia. That's a huge chunk of it, too.
57
@Orion Clemens. Thank you for this. I wish we could write this in the sky.
137
For an administration that is the mouthpiece of trump, who ran as a nationalist, why are they running around the globe on the taxpayers dime to tell everyone else what to do? And why would this adminstration imagine anyone is listening to them anymore, except maybe Putin and his helpers.
279
@v Russia booked the flights to Munich?
Employer work trip.
13
@v Business Trip?
3
Well, "Europe" has some 'splainin to do. With the disintegration of the Yugoslav Republic becoming more and more lethal and violent, the conventional wisdom was that that was Europe's chance (well, NATO's) to step up to the plate and act independently of US directives and initiatives to do what had to be done.
It was not a success, and the delay and indecision (if not dithering) were enormously harmful, making a bad situation positively dreadful, and the US wound up being much more directly involved than was thought to be desirable. And in the end, Croatia not NATO became something of the hero of the story.
That said, Trump's ignorance, malevolence, and stupidity are something to behold. Add thick-headedness (he seems to learn nothing from experience), and you leave Europe with no choice but to forget about US pretensions and meddling and just get on with their affairs. (Starting with slapping authenticity requirements on cheese varieties, to the great detriment of US cheesemakers.)
45
@als
Um, you do realize that NATO is a military alliance with the US military as the largest part (and is typically commanded by an US general)? So how could NATO be expected to do anything "independently of US directives"?
NATO is not Europe and Europe is not NATO, even though there is a lot of overlap and you are certainly right that Europe seriously missed a lot of chances to step past the bickering and infighting that is so typical for European politics.
5
Pence is deep in the Putin/Trump cartel too .
537
@Perry Neeum
You bet he is because Trump doesn't deal with people that are clean. Pence can't testify against Trump because he will indict himself.
39
@Perry Neeum
Yes, the whole religion thing is just a disguise, a cover. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
32
Yes, Mr. Neeum, part of me cheered when OUR allies did not applaud Minister Pence or The Con Don.
Then I became sad to the core.
How in the world did WE THE PEOPLE allow OUR government to deteriorate to this? How did the Koch brothers and Russians - and their International Mafia 0.01% Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys cabal - get control of OUR United States of America?
Reagan's idea of "the shining city on the hill" to describe America was just a big lie. Kool aide to make us believe he was working for us when he was the first democracy-destroyer. Like any good actor or preacher.
Robber Barons and crooks were the first to come to America to exploit the resources without any social conscience. That is what America was - a treasure chest for crooks. That is what they are still trying to make us today.
However, WE THE PEOPLE have the power to stop them and truly make OUR United States of America a beacon of Democracy, Hope and relative Peace for the world.
NOW is the time. Every day is the time to fight the Robber Barons to protect OUR lives and those of our children, grandchildren and all children of the world.
4
"Some polls have suggested that more Germans trust Vladimir Putin’s Russia than Trump’s United States."
Checkmate.
93
@LivingWithInterest,
'Stalemate', while Trump is protected and hiding behind his base wall, but he needs to secure and fortify it because he has few men left on his political board. There is no visible pawn in sight to replace his lost queen; his bishops remain unheard, and mistrusted; his rooks have gone.
The game was frozen not long ago, and Russia does not need him anymore in confronting the United States. The king is in peril of losing his ill-fitting crown to the Russian Czar, and Chancellor Merkel has issued a call, worthy of Emperor Charlemagne's nephew, Roland, raising a strong arm to tell the world that civilized nations across the border are in trouble, while Pence remains in the shadows, ready to place our Nation in a state of isolationism.
16
@LivingWithInterest Really? What polls might those be? I've not seen one. I've looked. I do believe that most of Europe dislikes and does not trust Trump; why would them, most citizens of the US don't trust, or like, or care to hear any more lies from him...but that does not mean that the Germans trust Putin. Truthfully, the only person you likes and support Putin is the president of the United States. As disgusting and disturbing as that is, it's true.
4
It seems to me that Trump and his gang of criminals is not going to be telling Europe how to conduct it's affairs like they have told the whiny petulant do-nothing Republicans to obey the almighty word of their fearless leader. Mr. Pence and certainly the daughter do not speak for most American citizens who know when they are being boondoggled.
263
Sadly, even in NYC I know a bunch of hard core Trumpists. There are more of them ignorant selfish low wits than we’d like to believe.
America to Europe: no thank you.
We'll stick with the Brits and let the statist socialists go down in flames, thank you.
Germany is the only reason that the rest of the European Union works at all.
Let the Germans cozy up to the Russians.
That will work out just as well as it has the other times they did that.
9
Honey, this is not even wrong. The one time Germany "cozied up" to the Russians, the coziness ended when Germany invaded.
4
@Objectivist
Here's what America has in common with merry old England: we've both been swindled by Cambridge Analytica. In six weeks England's economy craters, it becomes the pariah of Europe and Northern Ireland decides it can live better with Catholics than the next Churchill.
If only we had gotten off so easily for putting the Queens (New York, that is) crime syndicate into the White House.
16
@Objectivist
If one is being truly objective, it is Britain (England) that is about to go down in flames.
9
Pax Americana has ended. There is no going back.
Those responsible in order of precedence:
1) GOP electorate.
2) GOP senate
3) individual-1
The US is no longer a reliable trading or treaty partner. America's behavior is not even rational anymore. America's decline does not end when individual-1 is finally gone. The GOP electorate will continue to elect one 'Commodus ' after another until it is all over.
I'm old now, and feel extremely fortunate to have lived during Pax Americana. The coming generations will not be so lucky.
1007
"The US is no longer a reliable trading or treaty partner. America's behavior is not even rational anymore. America's decline does not end when individual-1 is finally gone.
But the people responsible are still a GRAND OLD PARTY in your book? They must be; you called them such 3 times in this one comment alone.
Three times.
Kindly summon the resolve to call them only by their name.
6
@oldBassGuy,
I'm old too and when, in the early 1980s, my wife and I discussed whether or not to have children, I told her, "We've entered the end game of the American Experiment and will be some kind of fascistic autocracy in 50 years, 70 at the outside. I can't see bringing a child into that."
Not just the GOP electorate; 40+ years of ignoring self governance and making citizenship a puerile and selfish competition have led to this. With an average of ~53% of eligible Americans skipping out on the vote every other year since the late 1970s this was foreseeable. There's plenty of blame to go around.
101
@oldBassGuy I could not agree more: I watched men walk on the moon (my Dad helped put them there and bring them back) and now I am old enough to watch a Nation die as an impartial observer - it's just a "reality" TV show at this point. The current generation of "proudly ignorant" fools deserve everything they are going to experience in the next few years. "Here, have a trophy for destroying the United States of America."
137
If Trump and his administration were capable of shame, they would have found Pence's embarrassing performance as horrifying as the attendees found it. Even Americans inured to the incompetence and America Last antics of Trump and his sycophants found it depressing, though not at all surprising.
Joe Biden's excellent performance several hours later reminded Americans how far we have fallen:
"The America I see does not wish to turn our back on the world or allies, our closest allies. ... The America I see values basic human decency, not snatching children from their parents or turning our back on refugees on the border,"
But Biden also reminded us that there is hope:
"This is the core of our identity, the very character of the American spirit and our own self-interest, and I promise you, I promise you, as my mother would say, this too shall pass. We will be back. We will be back. Don't have any doubt about that."
Biden may not be the one to lead us back. More likely it will be Harris, or Warren, or Klobuchar, or Brown, or Booker, or fill-in-your-favorite-here.
But there are two things we can be certain of:
We will be back. And it will take someone with a (D) following their name to start the recovery.
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This is an world wide embarresment. A Vice President who is a sycophant and mutters the thoughts of an imbecile who is doing his best to forfeit the moniker " leader of the free world".I pray that these fools do not continue to damage further our relations with our "True Allies", not Vlad or Xi.
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@LT
The Euro response to Biden reassures us Dumpf-haters that the world can distinguish us from him.
We always wear our "not my president" buttons when we go out anywhere---now safe even around TSA people.
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@LT
Should cosmic justice prevail with Trump being deposed and disposed of, one thing the Democrats offer is a very deep bench of foreign policy experts who can serve as "Ambassadors at Large".
For example, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and many others, all "elders of the tribe", can fan out to work with our estranged allies.
There is a lot of talent and intelligence that can help with restoration. If only everyone can hang on tight, we just might make it.
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Europe (let alone the western world) are essentially just waiting out the clock. They all know that the President is neutered on the economic front (with Democrats in control of the Congress and the purse strings), but can still wield international power - and along with it, damage.
Europe has its own problems at the moment, with propping up very weak economic members, to losing a strong one in Britain. Germany is particularly susceptible considering they took in such a large quantity of refugees. (tilting their domestic politics), They are also fairly at the mercy to Russia for their energy needs, and to America and China for their economic and manufacturing ones.
The United States (this republican administration and President) are upending the global economy with its trade wars, and there is a new power dynamic while the U.S. also seems to bow down to the Russian Czar and his international moves.
A lot can happen in 23 months, (including impeachment of the U.S. President) so Europe and the world waits and sees while deliberating their options
For now, not upending the cart is the status quo.
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