On January 29, Bryan Lanza, a long-time adviser to President Trump, sent a clear warning to a group of German manufacturers. He told them that the president was a “sledgehammer”. VDMA, chairman of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association, said you either work with him or get hit.
Mr Lanza warned Germans not to sell hydraulics that can be used in hospital beds and missile launchers to China. This is not a small question. If Beijing stops buying goods, Germany's economy is already shaking, and there is no Russian gas anymore.
But it was the radical nature of Mr. Lanza's remarks, which shocked many people in the room that day. They want to know, this is just Europeans doing more to the common threat, is this American tough love? Or there are Americans Become threaten?
In recent weeks, it has been one of many meetings with U.S. officials, with Europeans reevaluating their relationship with their most important allies. Indeed, Europeans are awakening the fact that they are entirely dependent on foreign powers that no longer act like they do. The United States, which once advocated a liberal democratic world order, is now opposing it in a way that shocks its allies.
The Trump administration not only asks allies to pay more for their military defense. Threats to incite a trade war, which could make it possible to raise funds for this purpose. The government is advocating for non-free, pro-Russian parties throughout Europe, which could undermine European projects from within. The reconciling tone for Russia is fascinating and meets on Ukraine’s fate without including Washington’s closest European allies.
It reminds me of the 1993 horror movie The Body Snatcher, when the protagonist slowly realizes that their loved ones are replaced by horrible doubles. Part of the panic comes from people who don’t know who can trust and realize how much impact you will suffer when your allies become invaders.
Consider Ukraine is the strongest voice in Europe’s fight for its democratic lifestyle. It depends on Elon Musk's satellite network American weapons and Starlink's survival.
A survey released last week by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that it belongs to the German Social Democratic Party.
These numbers are bound to rise as the Trump administration openly despise its long-term allies. Many Americans want to retreat from the world, but their leaders still have the right to be its boss. According to the survey, more than half of Republicans and nearly half of Democrats say they either don’t know which part of the world the United States should focus on or they simply don’t want to focus outside their borders. The conditions for Europe to be abandoned or shaken for protection are ripe.
It is surreal to imagine a long-term ally’s betrayal, the foundation of a person’s entire security infrastructure. Canadian Senator Peter Boehm told me he was shocked by the shock expressed by Europeans because they had been dealt with by Canadians for two months.
At the Munich Security Conference, one of the world's most prominent annual meetings of elected officials and military brass tubes, some are looking for signs of grand strategies at work. They told themselves that Americans are focused on China, so Europe must play a bigger role in defending itself, which is true. Others speculate that Mr. Trump is trying to strip Vladimir Putin from China, just as Richard Nixon stripped China from Russia in the 1970s. But as the meeting progresses, it appears Russia is taking away from Americans.
With the full power of everything happening in Washington, questions begin to pile up: If Mr. Trump is really competing with China, why would he hide the U.S. international development agency, an important tool for the influence of U.S. soft power around the world? Or to open fire, thousands of scientists need to keep America competitive? Or attacking higher education institutions that Americans need to maintain their lead? Or call half of your population an enemy? Or threaten good neighbors and be friendly with China's unlimited friends? Or should we hand over so much power to Mr. Musk, who has deep commercial interests in China?
Did the US president decide not to bother fighting the dictator but choose to make a deal with them – if you can't beat them, join them?
A moment of clarification was when Vice President JD Vance's highly anticipated speech at the conference focused on how the coalition opposed China and Russia's aggression, but on the way that European governments such as Sweden and Britain were too difficult for Christian conservatives to be the most right.
Indeed, voters across Europe are increasingly voting for far-right, pro-Russian, authoritarian parties, and mainstream politicians have yet to respond well. During the Tiktok era, Russia did not have to participate in the war to take over Europe. Mr. Putin could simply fund far-right politicians and promote social media accounts and seek to overthrow the government without firing a shot. It seems that the Trojan horse has arrived and Mr. Vance is commanding the opening of free and democratic countries in Europe.
The vulnerability of democratic decision-making has never been clearer. No matter how strongly the German Prime Minister opposes Mr Vance's speech – insists that Germany will support Ukraine until the end – German voters can lie in elections to his office on Sunday, just like American voters, like liars in the former president Joe Biden vowed that Americans would “support Ukraine as long as possible.”
During a supper filled with foreign ministers and a table filled with Ukrainian soldiers, Mr. Trump’s first senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said the president sincerely wanted to end the war and understand Ukraine. Real security is needed. At the meeting, Mr. Vance and other U.S. officials reportedly tried to convey the message that Americans remained a pair of safe hands.
But the truth is, no one really knows what U.S. and Russian officials are discussing behind closed doors this week. It has been generations since Europe felt naked and exposed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a leader, said he could not hold elections because his country was in the midst of a war of survival – last week in Munich talked about the needs of European democracies: A democratic country of its own: a great army of its own. Europeans must be strong because those who threaten them respect only strength.
That's how people talk about Mr. Putin. This time, they said this to Mr. Trump.
