Europe Counting Trumpian Days

Europe’s major capitals are learning to reconcile to the need for developing self-reliance as well as Europe’s collective interests, given priority over the post-World War II over-reliance on the superpower on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the United States. Others, too, might be doing the same. They have been subjected to the verbal missiles and punishing tariff missiles from the superpower, even if the latter’s global clout has begun slowly, but clearly, eroding.

Russian President Vladimir Putin might be among the exceptions making the most out of the Trump measures that hurt Russia additionally more than what it already bears since the Ukraine war. He calculates that American trade and foreign policy measures will compel Washington’s traditional allies not to rely on the superpower. Overly sensitive to criticisms, Trump has earned the reputation of reacting angrily, even rashly, to differences of opinion or rebutting him in any form. Under him, the traditional order of diplomacy has changed drastically. American power is being brandished to rough ride through any move that Washington sees as an obstacle to its interests and outlook.

The first unambiguously visible signal was the Volodymyr Zelenskyy encounter with the joint Trump and Vice President JD Vance team at the Oval Office in the White House in full view of the press. It was a match of two hosts versus the guest from war-ravaged Ukraine, which was fighting with another superpower neighbour for three years. The host duo bullied and mistreated Zelensky, much to the shock of the rest of the world. 

Open intimidation

At the signs of Zelensky reluctant to capitulate to Washington’s intimidating diktat for a peace agreement with Russia as per Washington’s outline, Trump claimed that the US had aided Ukraine with $400 billion. Zelensky later muttered that about $120 billion of the American help accounted for. Which meant that the help never reached Ukraine, and got lost on the way. Trump demanded that Kyiv repay Washington with rare earth. Eventually, Washington made Kyiv sign an agreement to this effect on US terms, whose details have not been made public. Clearly, the conditions were agreed upon under duress. In the first place, Zelensky had fallen for the US instigation to seek NATO membership, with enough hints that Kyiv would be adequately supported with finance and weapons in the eventuality of a full-fledged war. 

Putin has it good both ways, with the satisfaction that the very Washington that under the Joe Biden administration had been behind Kyiv’s bid for NATO changed the policy under the next president, who blamed the previous administration for prodding the Ukrainian leader to create conditions for war with Moscow. During the election campaign, Trump had boasted that he would negotiate a peace deal over Ukraine within 24 hours of entering the White House. More than six months after he took office, his promised deal is yet to be realised. 

The development showcases to what extent big powers dare to bully weaker states but chicken out when another major power gives a short shrift to presumptuous positions. Putin is not as obliging as Trump would have liked. As life gets tougher by the day, with their earnings buying less for paying more, an average European’s mood gets darkened, no longer deluded by the peppermint promises political leaders make. Increasingly angry at their government, people are against continued support to Ukraine. 

To aggravate the prospects of relief, Trump said less than three weeks after entering the White House for a second innings: “EU was created to screw the United States”:. In March 2025, the EU was set up to take advantage of the US.” He complained: “Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine.” 

Canada and, to some extent, Ukraine have come to bear the brunt of the harsh truth in the entirely uncalled-for Trump tirade that proves to be overbearing and even undignified to the overwhelming silent majority. At the same time, Europe is reported to have imported Russian gas to the tune of $23.6 billion in 2024 compared to the $20.17billion financial aid to Ukraine during the same period. On how much time is left until the end of Trump, “presumed the central point of disruption”, the noted American thinker Noam Chomsky dismisses the thinking that once Trump is gone, normalcy will return. It is only a delusion. 

Far-fetched  

Trump has been in office for nearly six and a half months. Which means his second innings has nearly three and a half years more to complete. Those who think a new face at the at the White House will scrap all that the Trump administration introduced, delude themselves. First, as of now, Vice-President JD Vance has a fair chance of obtaining the Republican ticket for a shot at the White House. And most Republican members and voters continue supporting Trump.

However, even if a Democrat were to succeed Trump in January 2029, some of the measures the predecessor introduced are likely to stick for long, if not for good. The cavalier manner in which foreign aid operated for decades under the USAID banner is unlikely to be revived. The immigration process will be rigorous. The carrot and stick policy of “you are either with us or you are not with us” will basically stick, even if the outward tone might ease.

A section of Trump’s supporters is nursing his ego by an appeal for a Nobel Peace prize for him. Three US presidents, Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Barack Obama in 2009, were awarded when in office but the decisions disappointed many. Mahatma Gandhi, whose non-violent approach to gaining India’s independence, is not in the list of the awardees. For the Peace panel in Oslo feared incurring the wrath of the mighty imperial Britain. Aware of how powerful influence can cast absurd outcomes, Trump leaves no stone unturned to take the odds, even if critics fume and fret, and hope things will be positively different in the 2028 election. 

(Professor Kharel specialises in political communication.)