USA & Europe are drifting apart

[Emelee]

It's becoming more and more obvious. Trump and the European leaders are not getting along.

After a recent meeting with Trump, Angela Merkel (Germany) said: "The times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent, over". That Europe has to stand strong alone.

Meanwhile, France's new President Emmanuel Macron had a slightly cold meeting with Trump. A battle of power handshake for instance, squeezing Trump's hand until it turned white (knowing the tactics Trump uses to show power during shakes). Macron has confirmed it was no usual handshake, that it was "a moment of truth". He went on to compare Trump to Putin & Turkey's Erdogan. "Donald Trump, the Turkish president or the Russian president see relationships in terms of a balance of power."

And the Pope has been giving Trump political advice, as he has not appreciated some of Trump's actions.

The UK's Theresa May on the other hand appears more like a Trump puppet. Although she did get angry when the FBI revealed secret Scotland Yard information to media. However, she's also defended Trump on him recently giving Russia secret intelligence. But as The UK is exiting the EU, they need The US now more. So I get that she wants to play nice.

And Russia's Putin is of course secretly celebrating, as he really hates the NATO alliance. The weaker NATO gets, the better for Russia.


And Trump is of course saying that everything is great.
It's not. Far from it.
With the bond between USA & Europe getting weaker, it paves the way for others to swoop in and cash in.

 

[SueEllenRules!]

White House to Europe: Trump picks on you because he likes you
During meetings in Europe last week, President Donald Trump devoted much of his public remarks to chiding NATO members he insists are freeloading on the United States by not meeting their commitment to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

• President Donald Trump may be aggravating Germany, France and other U.S. allies in Europe with his tirades and qualms about trade imbalances, NATO spending and the Paris climate change deal.
• But the White House is casting Trump’s approach as one designed to strengthen the U.S.-European relationship — not kill it.
• After all, Trump aides insist, real friends tell each other hard truths.
• Trump “views not just Germany but the rest of Europe as an important American ally,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday, adding that the Republican president’s demands during his first official visit to Europe last week that other NATO countries spend more on defense were “getting results.”
• “That is a good thing for them, it’s a good thing for NATO, and it’s a good thing for America,” Spicer said.
• To others, however, the Europe-U.S. tensions over defense spending, trade deals and climate change are real, growing and could ultimately lead to shifts in alliances if Trump does not temper his tone. European leaders, some of whom face elections at home, do not want voters to see them as weak next to Trump.
• While it’s unlikely the United States and Europe would flat-out abandon each other, smaller rifts could be exploited by rivals such as Russia, lead to new partnerships with emerging forces such as China, or threaten cooperation on joint endeavors such as stabilizing Afghanistan.
• “Europeans really are asking themselves, ‘How can we try and proceed and construct a positive way forward with someone who won’t even meet us halfway?’” said Julianne Smith, who advised former Vice President Joe Biden on national security. “Sure, there’s not going to be a total break in the relationship. But it could really inhibit cooperation at the highest levels, and that’s where the toughest problems get solved.”
• During meetings in Europe last week, Trump devoted much of his public remarks to chiding NATO members he insists are freeloading on the United States by not meeting their commitment to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense. Trump did not directly endorse Article 5, the principle at the heart of NATO that says members will treat an attack on one as an attack on all. He also would not sign on to a statement committing the United States to honoring the Paris climate change agreement.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a campaign event over the weekend ahead of elections this fall, indicated that she no longer considered the United States a reliable ally.
• “The times in which we could rely fully on others — they are somewhat over,” said Merkel, strong comments from the highly influential but usually measured leader. On Tuesday, she told a closed-door meeting of her parliamentary group that while she remained committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance, she would not pretend there weren’t substantive differences with Trump, especially on climate change.
• German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was blunter. "The short-sighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union,” Gabriel said Monday. “The West has become smaller; at least, it has become weaker."
• Trump and his team were in no mood to walk anything back.
• The president shot back Tuesday on Twitter: “We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.”
• In the past, Trump’s aides have engaged in clean-up efforts after he clashed with foreign allies, but there was no confirmation of such behind-the-scenes work this time. A Pentagon spokesman said he was unaware of any outreach by Defense Secretary James Mattis to European counterparts, while the State Department refused to say whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had had any conversations.
• Spicer used Tuesday’s daily White House press briefing to insist that the Trump administration is fully committed to NATO and other European alliances but that it would not back down on its demands.
• “During his conversations at NATO and at the G-7, the president reaffirmed the need to deepen and improve our trans-Atlantic relationship,” Spicer insisted.
• Another administration spokesman, Michael Short, put it this way: “The good thing about strong alliances, like the one we have with Germany, is that you can have frank discussions.”
• Trump’s predecessors, Republican and Democratic, also voiced frustration that so few NATO members meet the commitment to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense. But those presidents couched their criticisms in reassurances of America’s commitment to NATO, including promises that it would aid any NATO member that was attacked.
• Trump’s failure to take that two-pronged approach is why so many Europeans are alarmed, said Charles Kupchan, who served as senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council in the Obama administration.
• “This is the real Trump, this is where he’s landed, and I think that’s the message that Europeans have come away with,” Kupchan said.
• A State Department official said that Trump’s departure from past administrations’ approaches deeply concerned U.S. diplomats but that, so far, they are taking comfort in the fact that it’s not much more than rhetoric.
• However, if Trump decides to abandon the Paris climate agreement or to reverse the U.S. diplomatic opening to Cuba brought about by former President Barack Obama, many European officials would be furious, the State Department official said. Both decisions could come in the next few days.
• On climate, there are signs that Europe is preparing for what it considers a worst-case scenario. European officials have for months looked to Canada and China as partners on climate change, increasingly aware that the United States is no longer fully in their corner on the issue, EU sources told POLITICO.
• Trump’s critics have already accused him of emboldening China, saying his decision to yank the United States out of the massive trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership will allow China to take the lead on trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The political climate in Europe is playing into how closely leaders align with or distance themselves from Trump.
• British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is overseeing her country’s plans to leave the European Union, has tried to get close to Trump, to the point where she’s been accused of not doing enough to push him to stick to the Paris climate deal.
• In Germany, where Merkel is running for re-election, no party wants to be seen as soft on Trump, who is widely disliked by Germans. The Merkel-Trump divide isn’t unprecedented. The relationship between Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, and then-President George W. Bush essentially broke down over Berlin's refusal to back the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
• Newly minted French President Emmanuel Macron, free of the burdens of campaigning, has made several moves that indicate he won’t kowtow to Trump. In Brussels, Belgium, last week, he shook Trump’s hand with such a strong grip that the U.S. president’s knuckles turned white. Macron later declared the handshake was “not innocent” and symbolized his unwillingness to make concessions.
• During another encounter, Macron walked toward Trump but swerved at the last minute to greet Merkel first; later he published a photo of the mingling G-7 leaders that noticeably did not include Trump.
• But Macron aides say their new leader’s ultimate goal is to draw the American president in, not push him away. "The greater the distance is, the more you have to go toward the other ... sulkers don't win," a senior aide to Macron said, adding that the French president wants “to remind Trump that he is part of the future of Europe."

White House to Europe: Trump picks on you because he likes you - POLITICO
https://apple.news/AxO-V0gSIRi2B1MYiodKOaA

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Germans wonder why Trump keeps lashing out at them and not Russia or Saudi Arabia

• BERLIN — When news emerged in 2013 that the U.S. government had monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's communications for years, Merkel sent a firm but conciliatory message to Washington. Friends don't spy on each other, she said, and then moved on to calm tensions.
• At the time, U.S. security experts defended the surveillance, saying friendships can easily end — an argument that was swiftly dismissed in Berlin, where strong transatlantic ties had long been the foundation of its international diplomacy.
• Four years later, however, the once-unthinkable suddenly seems very real. President Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Germany in recent weeks, taking to Twitter on Tuesday in the latest attack — targeting Germany's military spending and trade practices.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change 6:40 AM · May 30, 2017

• Germans, long opposed to many of Trump's campaign promises, are irritated and concerned by his criticism of their country. They wonder why the leader of Germany's most influential international ally seems more willing to criticize their country than nations with questionable human rights records.
• “Europeans think they are now being treated worse by Trump than countries like Russia or Saudi Arabia,” said Stephan Bierling, an expert on transatlantic relations at the University of Regensburg in Germany.
• Confronted with Trump's verbal attacks on Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel — who is known for her cautious choice of words — appears to be increasingly outspoken about the ongoing decline of German-U.S. relations. Although she was never a supporter of Trump, she initially expressed a willingness to collaborate with him if he respected values such as “the dignity of each and every person.” Her conditional offer of support, made the day after Trump's election, was meant as both an invitation to work together and a subtle warning.
• But after contentious meetings with Trump last week, Merkel indicated changes in the U.S.-German equation, saying Sunday that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands” and emphasizing that the days when her continent could rely on others was “over to a certain extent. This is what I have experienced in the last few days.”
• In Berlin, Trump's attacks on Germany have raised questions about the future of the alliance. Besides strong economic ties, Germany hosts some of the United States' biggest military bases abroad and about half of all U.S. soldiers on the continent. But Trump says Germany's trade surplus hurts U.S. interests, and he has criticized what he deems as Germany's low defense spending. Merkel rejects most of his criticism as baseless.
• The bilateral strains mean that the United States has, to some extent, lost the trust of one of Europe's most pro-American leaders. The German chancellor, the most powerful politician in Europe, grew up in Eastern Germany, and her upbringing there has long been credited for her staunch support for closer European-American ties. “Given her experience with the Cold War, Merkel has long upheld and defended American ideals. But the belief in shared values has been shattered by the Trump administration,” Bierling said.
• As the German leader starts to focus on general elections in September and her bid for a fourth term in office, the transatlantic rift could further deepen. Leading Social Democrats said Monday that Merkel should have openly opposed Trump from the start rather than trying to work with him at first. “Merkel needs to put some distance between herself and Trump, who is exceptionally unpopular in Germany,” said Marcel Dirsus, a political scientist at the University of Kiel in northern Germany.
• But how far is Merkel really willing to go? Dirsus cautioned that Germany remained reliant on the United States, especially in terms of its military. “Germany will have to cooperate with the U.S., whether it wants to or not,” he said.
• Merkel, for instance, announced last spring that she wanted to increase Germany's annual defense budget by $27 billion over the next three years. That would almost double the current budget — but it would still be dwarfed by the $664 billion the United States spends every year.
• Merkel is unlikely to warm to Trump like she did to former president Barack Obama. But she also won't be able to simply ignore him.

Germans wonder why Trump keeps lashing out at them and not Russia or Saudi Arabia - The Washington Post
https://apple.news/A9g6P2YAsSX-qqkDvj_QmKw

 

[Emelee]

• Confronted with Trump's verbal attacks on Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel — who is known for her cautious choice of words — appears to be increasingly outspoken about the ongoing decline of German-U.S. relations. Although she was never a supporter of Trump, she initially expressed a willingness to collaborate with him if he respected values such as “the dignity of each and every person.” Her conditional offer of support, made the day after Trump's election, was meant as both an invitation to work together and a subtle warning.

This speaks volumes. Cause West European leaders are usually very diplomatic and they don't utter many bad words about other leaders of democracies. With 2 world wars in our history, we are trying to stay friendly and help each other. That's the whole reason why the EU got started in the first place. Building bridges instead of walls, because no one wants a 3rd world war or economical uproar.

So by stating these kinds of things are major warning signs. And I sure as hell don't like it.