Is Trump Making Europe Great Again?

In a world of zero-sum thinking, the EU's win-win logic can be a powerful tool.

The first rule of international politics should be: never drink your own kool-aid. Believing in his own misguided propaganda about Ukraine, Vladimir Putin thought it a good idea to start a full-scale war against one of Europe’s largest countries. Now Trump and his people fail to understand that Europe is not just the weak and meek bunch of useless bureaucrats, infected with the “woke mind virus”, that their MAGA bubble depicts Europe as.

There was a real risk that Europe would fail to agree on a common strategy vis-à-vis Trump, competing against each other in a beauty contest to win Trump’s favour instead. But on the contrary, Trump and his people have driven so far off the cliff that the European response has been firm and united. The Trump team’s concerted effort to antagonize Europe at the Munich Security Conference has been followed by Trump’s brazen claims that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, would be an unelected dictator (while refusing to say the same about Putin) and blaming Ukraine for the war, and, incredibly, the US voting with Russia against a UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion. And the treatment is showing results. According to Euractiv, European reactions were rather blunt:

”Several European diplomats speaking to Euractiv didn't mince words. One of them described the UN/G7 debacle over Ukraine wording as a ‘total clusterfuck,’ while another went as far as to call Trump ‘Putin’s bitch.’”

Meanwhile, European leaders have been busy setting up plans to save Ukraine from Trump’s clutches. Macron, who finally seems to be getting the hang of leadership in Europe - not in unilateral moves, but in consultation with others - convened two meetings last week. On the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, 24 February 2025, a large number of European and EU leaders were gathered in Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine (notably in the absence of American representatives). On the same day, the EU announced its 16th sanctions package (including on the shadow fleet), and a substantial support package for Ukraine’s energy security, with full integration of Ukraine and Moldova into the EU’s energy market by early 2027. Reportedly, the EU is also working on a new military support package for Ukraine, worth “at least” €20 billion.

Ukraine signed a watered-down version of the rip-off minerals deal with the US after Trump backed down from the demands for a right to $500 billion in potential revenue from exploiting mineral resources. In its current, rather vague form, the deal seems mainly to aim to please Trump the dealmaker and leaves details to future negotiations. On the same day, the EU offered Ukraine a partnership on “critical materials” on a mutually beneficial basis. By offering an alternative, the EU can boost Ukraine’s position on a number of issues in the negotiations.

Picture: Benjamin Haddad’s X account

Apart from non-EU member Europeans Norway, Iceland, and the UK, also Canada has been actively participating in European meetings, making the format much wider than just the EU - more like a “Europe+” (in Kyiv, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre joked that Europe is buying Canada back from the US). Notably, not even the two difficult EU/NATO members Hungary and Turkey are jeopardizing the current efforts. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán agreed to the latest sanctions package on time for the war anniversary, and Turkey seems to have decided to pick the European side for now, with President Erdogan expressing support for Ukraine’s NATO membership. Trump’s obvious disdain for Europe has even turned the German election winner, Christian Democratic Party leader and die-hard transatlanticist Friedrich Merz, into a Gaullist proponent of not only European strategic autonomy, but independence, from the US. Merz also previously expressed interest in the French offer to talk about possible European cooperation on nuclear deterrence. In a remarkable feat, Trump has united US allies - against the US.

Beyond the political centre, MAGA is losing popularity even among European far right. French far right leader Jordan Bardella cancelled his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after Steve Bannon repeated Elon Musk’s Nazi salute. Norwegian far right politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who has been one of Trump’s most avid proponents in Norway and nominated him twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, has changed his opinion and is now criticizing Trump’s Ukraine policy. As it happens, Nazi salutes or disrespecting a country’s sovereignty are not considered patriotic moves in France or Norway, both having been occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II. Already a year ago, the far right Sweden Democrats’ MP, Mattias Karlsson, came back severely disillusioned from a trip to the US. He had found MAGA way too radicalized and agreed with the journalist interviewing him that the Republican Party had become “shit”.

The issue that Trump and his team either does not understand or care about is that over the past three years of unprovoked war, Ukraine’s place in Europe has changed significantly. If in 2014, there was only a vague sense of inconvenience about Russia’s annexation of Crimea, now Ukraine is perceived as central to European security. Ukraine is also firmly on the path to become an EU member, with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen optimistic that the accession could happen before 2030 if reforms continue at the current speed. The Nordic and Baltic countries are particularly invested in Ukraine’s future, and are driving Europe forward as a whole. These eight small countries, in an exposed location close to Russia, firmly consider Ukraine’s fate to determine theirs. This sentiment is widely shared on the continent.

P.S. Tesla’s sales dropped by 45 percent in Europe last month. And the Wall Street Journal reported that investors seem eager to make Europe great again. So if you think that Europe is doomed, you are not listening.