As Trump Decries Europe’s ‘Decline,’ the Divided Continent Is Increasingly Paralyzed

President Trump’s approach to Europe is widely panned as over the top, unnecessarily intrusive, and worse. Yet does he have a point in asserting that European leaders “don’t know what they’re doing?”Mr. Trump made that assertion, as well as calling the European Union “weak,” and other choice words, in an interview with Politico. In the Tuesday interview he also prodded Ukraine, the site of Europe’s deepest crisis since World War II, to cede territory to Russia, conduct an election, and admit defeat. Indicating policy direction, America’s national security strategy paper, issued December 5, asserts that Europe’s “economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” The 33-page paper warns that “should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less,” and that “it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.” European officials are indignant, pushing back against Mr. Trump’s “meddling” in the Continent’s affairs. They criticize what they see as abandonment of Ukraine, and mourn the end of a longtime alliance between Western liberal countries. Some in the Continent, though, see his points. Mr. Trump “is right to criticize Europe’s civilizational decline and lack of leadership,” a former British prime minister, Liz Truss, tells the Sun. “We need a Europe of strong nation states to confront the challenges we face today — mass immigration, economic stagnation, and censorship of free speech.” The Tory politician has recently launched an all-platform broadcast, the Liz Truss Show, meant to “tell the truth about what is happening” in Europe and beyond, she says. As Washington pushes back against years of “open borders,” a similar pushback against migrants to Europe has given rise to several right-wing parties that also oppose the European Union’s overly-bureaucratic structure that gives less room for national aspirations while collective decision-making leads to stagnation. Europe is an ally that “remains strategically and culturally vital,” for America, the Trump team writes in the national security strategy paper. Washington, it adds, needs to help the Continent “correct its current trajectory.”Europeans demur. “Allies don’t threaten to interfere in the domestic political choices of their allies,” the European Council president, António Costa, told a conference at Paris in reaction to the paper. America “cannot replace European citizens in choosing what the good or the bad parties are.”The European right, though, is supportive of Mr. Trump’s critique. “Left-wing policies have led Germany and Europe into this crisis,” a spokeswoman for Alternative for Germany, Beatrix Von Storch, tells the Sun. “President Trump must address these problems, and he does so. If these problems are not solved, the entire Western world risks destabilization.”Here are some of the top differences between America and Europe.Ukraine: Is the War Lost? Mr. Trump accuses European leaders of failing to end the Continent’s largest crisis since World War II. “They talk but they don’t produce, and the war just keeps going on and on,” he told Politico. Both he and President Biden have failed to deliver arms to Ukraine in a timely manner. Tepid support of Kyiv resulted in the current war of attrition that favors the Russian invader.Yet the war is in Europe’s backyard, and the accusation of more talk than action fits the EU’s major source of paralysis: Unanimous decisions on policy. Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, would use some European-held $224 billion in frozen Russian assets to finance arm purchase for Ukraine. The funds are held in a Brussels-based financial institute, Euroclear, and the Kremlin has put the squeeze on Prime Minister Bart De Wever of Belgium. He is adamant that using the funds for Ukraine would risk Russian retaliation against his country and would constitute a violation of international law to boot.The result: Ukraine is on the verge of bankruptcy, and Europe is failing to help it out of its financial hole. Additionally, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain has bowed out of a Security Action for Europe, a scheme to finance arms purchases for Ukraine. Mr. Starmer pushes back against the accusation that Europe is not doing enough, even as he supports Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the war. The president, though, is increasingly critical of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, calling on him to conduct a national election. Mr. Zelensky needs “to get on the ball and start accepting things,” Mr. Trump says. Ukraine has “lost territory long before I got here.” The Ukrainian president, though, rejected Washington’s latest peace plan. Migration: Europe’s Growing CrisisFrom rape gangs at London to the closing of traditional Christamas markets at Berlin for fear of Islamist attacks, the Continents is failing to get a grip of its migrant crises. Mr. Trump’s statement that America must help Europe restore its “civilizational self-confidence and Western identity” is well received by ever-growing anti-migration movements across Europe. “Germany and Europe need close cooperation with the U.S., particularly to resolve the migration issue, end the open borders policy, and strengthen the nation-state and Western Christian values,” the AfD Ms. Von Storch says. Recent opinion polls show that her once-shunned party would now be Germany’s top vote getter, with 26 percent of the electorate.Similarly, polls show that Britain’s Reform Party, led by migration policy critic Nigel Farage, has leaped ahead of Mr. Starmer fast-sinking Labour. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is also winning, while President Macron’s numbers are tanking. Antisemitism: the Canary in the Coal MineWhile once the realm of the far right, Europe’s oldest hatred, now dressed as ostracizing the Jewish state, is increasingly a staple of Europe’s left-most governments. Failing to oust Israel from its annual song contest, the Eurovision, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia announced they would drop out of next year’s kitsch-filled event at Vienna. The drive to exclude the Mideast’s most liberal country from an extravaganza that draws millions of viewers seems to be less about Gaza and more about European leaders’ massive push-back against anything Israel or Jews. Antisemitism, though, has always signaled society decline, especially in Europe.Meanwhile, as critics decry Mr. Trump’s preference of other regions over the old continent, the president says, “I have no vision for Europe. All I want to see is a strong Europe. I have a vision for the United States.”

As Trump Decries Europe’s ‘Decline,’ the Divided Continent Is Increasingly Paralyzed

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