Sucking up to Donald Trump is the order of the day as the European allies calculate what his imminent return to the White House means for them. The consensus seems to be that massaging his ego with shameless flattery is the best way to avoid a repeat of past bust-ups and name-calling. But another school of thought warns: Trump will be far worse this time. Know your enemy. Prepare to fight back.
The US president-elect’s appearance in Paris this weekend, at the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, is akin to throwing down a gauntlet. A nightmare Europeans believed was over has come back to haunt them. It’s real. He’s here again, demanding attention and obeisance. The fawning responses of politicians who previously reviled him speak volumes about Europe’s weakness and divisions.
It’s all rather embarrassing. Cloying praise is genuine in the case of Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, and hard-right populists like Călin Georgescu, who styles himself as Romania’s Trump. The bromantic gestures of Emmanuel Macron, France’s inconstant president, are more disingenuous. He was one of the first to congratulate Trump on his election victory. Having him come to Paris is seen, rather pathetically, as a diplomatic coup.
Too late. They’re already kissing his ass at the Notre Dame ceremony as if it were an official state visit.
I guess they are trying to play him. There were articles about it a while ago that the idea is that as long as he gets to pretend he won great deals and everyone respects him, he doesn’t care how the actual important issues may go.
So if the EU gives an inch on some unimportant bullshit, and the press blows it up as something that was super painful for us, but Trump was just so good a negotiator that we had to do it, we may get to get him to even betray Putin.
Fingers crossed, at least.
The alternative is completely alienating the US just because their leader is stupid beyond measure. Wouldn’t be the right choice, even though I hate his guts as much as the next sane person.
Unfortunately, at least for now, Europe needs America, so until Trump crashes the U.S. economy, and I’m guessing that won’t take long, they’ll keep kissing his ass.
Once people can’t afford European exports? Fuck you, Trump.
Toddlercracy