Washington: President Donald Trump holds talks this week with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a moment of deep uncertainty about the future of transatlantic relations, with Trump transforming American foreign policy and effectively tuning out European leadership as he looks to quickly end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump also has made demands for territory — Greenland, Canada, Gaza and the Panama Canal — as well as precious rare earth minerals from Ukraine.
Just over a month into his second term, the “ America First ” president has cast an enormous shadow over what veteran US diplomats and former government officials had regarded as America’s calming presence of global stability and continuity.
Despite some notable hiccups, the military, economic and moral power of the United States has dominated the post-World War II era, most notably after the Cold War came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. All of that, some fear, may be lost if Trump gets his way and the US abandons the principles under which the United Nations and numerous other international bodies were founded. “The only conclusion you can draw is that 80 years of policy in standing up against aggressors has just been blown up without any sort of discussion or reflection,” said Ian Kelly, a US ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administration.
Their visits come after Trump shook Europe with repeated criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to negotiate an end to the war.