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His guide of what the United States election means 2024 for Washington and the world
“The world must be safe for democracy. His peace must be planted in the proven foundations of political freedom. “Those were the words of President Woodrow Wilson in April 1917 on the eve of the entrance of the United States in World War I.
More than a century later, Donald Trump has embarked on a very different global mission. The president of the United States is making the world safe for autocracy.
Trump’s affirmation That Ukraine was responsible for his own invasion and that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a dictator was a explanatory moment.
When aligning so perfectly with the Kremlin propaganda, the president of the United States showed that Trump’s America is perfectly happy to see Russia win this war and crush Ukraine.
European and Ukrainian diplomats, excluded from Russian conversations in the United States, will continue to prove whether it is possible to ensure that the United States supports credible security guarantees for Ukraine. But Trump’s only remaining interest in Ukraine seems to be a predator, witness Your demand that the country delivers a large part of its mineral wealth to the United States.
Recognizing that money is one of the few things that really motivates Trump, the Russians arrived in conversations in Saudi Arabia with a long list of tenthors business. Wait that the US sanctions. Uu. Russia are raised soon.
There are still some in Europe that try to rationalize all this. They argue, on the basis of very little evidence, that Trump will not want Russia to win war. Others claim that all this is part of an intelligent American maneuver to isolate China.
But the gloomy truth is that Vladimir Putin and Trump are united by their contempt for European democracies. Earlier this month, Putin saying That Trump “restored order” in Europe and that European countries “will remain at the foot of the teacher and will tighten their queues.” Those comments were reimbursed by Trump on social networks.
As for China, Trump has expressed his admiration for Xi Jinping almost frequently as he announced to Putin. It seems that he wants to reach an agreement with the leader of China’s strong man. Therefore, Trump seems completely likely to betray Taiwan As surely as Ukraine has betrayed.
The rumor in Washington is already full of the United States will threaten to impose tariffs on Taiwan unless it agrees to sell a significant part of TSMC, the leading semiconductor company in the world, an American buyer. If the United States can reduce its dependence on Taiwanese semiconductors, then the road would be open for the United States to leave Taiwan.
A world in which Russia, China and the United States are hostile to liberal democracy is undeniably intimidating for Europeans. But while there is a reason for alarm, there is no need for despair. European countries still have formidable resources to protect themselves, and are beginning to recognize reality and respond to it.
Friedrich MerzThat he is ready to become Germany’s new chancellor after Sunday’s Bundestag elections, he said recently: “We must prepare for the possibility that Donald Trump no longer defends the commitment of NATO mutual defense of NATO unconditionally.” Merz broke another taboo suggesting that Germany should speak with France and Great Britain about “nuclear exchange”, so that Germans no longer depend on the umbrella of US nuclear weapons.
The weaknesses of Europe are well known: slow growth, high debts, small military, a slow movement, and The emergence of extremist parties That look at Putin and Trump.
But a united Europe also has formidable strengths that needs to remember and resort. The EU and the United Kingdom, together, have an economy approximately 12 times the size of Russia’s. The EU is the world’s largest exporter of goods and services manufactured, and it is a commercial power considerably greater than the US.
Europe produces world leading sciences. It has a strong industrial base. The fact that European countries follow the rule of law is crucial for business and will be based on investment, since the contempt of the Trump administration by law becomes clearer.
Rapidly increased Defense expenditure On a paneurpea base it is completely attainable. Cooperation between Britain, France and Germany is intensifying and can complement the slowest EU.
Europe feels dangerously isolated at this time. But there is a network of advanced liberal democracies worldwide that will want to work with Europe and the United Kingdom, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada.
Europeans should also be encouraged from the idea that this dark period in the United States will not last forever. Liberal forces in the United States are in retirement, but have not disappeared. The recklessness and arrogance of the Trump administration make it completely possible that the magic movement explodes quite fast.
Europeans and their democratic allies worldwide must be maintained, sure that in the end their values will prevail, as they have done in the past.
As Wilson said in 1917: “We will fight for the things that we have always led closer to our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to the authority to have a voice in their own governments, for rights and freedoms of small nations. “
The United States is on the wrong side of that fight for now. The EU and the United Kingdom can, and must continue with the fight.