It’s bad enough that President Trump poses the greatest threat to American democracy that most of us have seen in our lifetimes, from his lies about millions of illegal voters who cost him the popular vote and subsequent support of a commission to “fix” this fictitious problem (all in the name of disenfranchising likely Democratic voters), to his firing of the FBI director for the admitted reason that the president didn’t want the Russia investigations to continue (obstruction of justice, anyone?).
But the danger in which this president is placing the United States’ fundamental alliance with the democracies of Europe is also deeply distressing, as it’s paired with growing authoritarianism and right-wing strength around the globe, whether already well established as in Russia, just now coming into full murderous bloom in the Philippines, or in the strong showing of the National Front in France’s recent elections. Almost needless to say, Trump's attitude toward our European allies is one strain of a broader incompetent foreign policy that encompasses everything from the president’s dangerous bluster over North Korea to his refusal to accept the reality of global warming.
The Hot Screen is well aware that not everyone shares our nerdy and occasionally bombastic interest in foreign relations and the grand clashing tides of capitalism, democracy, authoritarianism, etc. — and that’s OK! But though these international issues can feel deeply abstract compared to the nitty gritty of national politics, where what happens in Washington can have an immediate, profound affect on our daily lives (such as whether we have access to health care or suddenly find our non-white friends living with increased apprehension over their everyday safety), we believe there is an overwhelming case for bringing these foreign policy threats more fully into public consciousness and into the political dialogue about why Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.
It makes zero sense to alienate long-term allies with which we share a wealth of political and cultural ties. Whether it’s as mutual adherents to the cause of democracy or as allies in fighting terrorism, our ties to Europe have been fused into place by our participation in two world wars and the decades-long Cold War. The democratic state of modern Europe owes everything to the thousands of servicemen who fought and died to save Europe, as well as to an overall U.S. commitment to promote democracy on the continent.
Talking Points Memo has been doing the most pointed job I’ve seen of calling out this president’s radical about-face on how the U.S. treats its long-standing alliances, and a consonance between Trump’s goals and those of Vladimir Putin’s Russia that should raise alarm bells for our citizenry (that the president is acting in a way that benefits the Russians is of course a real live wire and an issue in and of itself, given our steadily expanding understanding of the links between Russia and the Trump campaign).
In his visit to Europe last week, Trump seemed to use criticism of European nations’ financial contributions to NATO as a cloak for undermining the alliance more generally — a point most chillingly driven home when he refused to endorse the principle of mutual defense that’s the heart of the organization’s purpose and power. As TPM elaborates, the financial criticisms are tendentious and mostly lies, and it must be clear to our European allies that Trump is quite deliberately picking a fight with them. Indeed, we saw this past week that both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have made strong comments about the already-shifted nature of U.S. - European relations, with Merkel essentially signaling that the Europe can no longer count on the United States. TPM points out that European leaders seem to be realizing that “it’s not just that Trump is greedy or impulsive or unreliable, indifferent to the North Atlantic alliance but that he is positively against it.”
It may be that Donald Trump’s visit to Europe will catalyze coverage and broaden Americans’ consciousness of the catastrophic damage he’s perpetrating on our country’s most fundamental partnerships. Today brings two relevant articles: here, Brian Beutler at New Republic provides an overview of how long-term harm from Trump’s attempts to restructure our foreign policy is made possible by Republican complicity; and here, the New York Times reports on the startling efforts that Russia is making to pull Italy — yes, ITALY! — out of its close ties to the U.S. and nearer to itself.
