The US President lashed out against his European allies, but is facing his own issues back home
WASHINGTON DC – The White House will have noticed that during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer adopted his by-now-traditional approach of “do no harm” to his personal relationship with Donald Trump.
Yet with each passing hour, Trump’s determination to bury the transatlantic alliance is more nakedly revealed. And with each passing hour, efforts by Sir Keir to avoid igniting a confrontation with the White House appear increasingly futile.
On Tuesday, in an interview with Politico, Trump’s disdain for the societies and culture of multiple European nations was on open, naked display. He flayed European leaders as “weak” and insisted that the continent is riven with “decay”.
Echoing his national security strategy, published last Friday, the President said illegal immigration flows are leading the continent to inevitable, civilisational collapse. “It gets to a point where you can’t really correct it,” he said. “It’s very close to that point.”
Pressed to explain what he meant, Trump implied that migrants, many of them Muslims, are poised to seize control of key Nato member states. “The people coming in have totally different ideology”, he said. “It’s gonna make them much weaker.”
Trump also rounded on London’s mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, and not for the first time, having previous aired falsehood that Londoners are clamouring for Sharia law. “He’s got a totally different ideology of what he’s supposed to have, and he gets elected because so many people have come in…. I hate what’s happened to London and I hate what’s happened to Paris,” Trump said.
Trump’s interview will have given the Kremlin even more to celebrate, just days after Vladimir Putin’s spokesman described the new US national security strategy as “largely consistent” with Russia’s vision of international relations.
Trump also endorsed several Putin talking points in his interview with Politico, arguing that by its mere size, Russia should triumph in its attempted conquest of Ukraine. “Russia has the upper hand. They always did… At some point, size will win, generally”, he claimed.
He also appeared to question Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy in office, given the lack of elections in Ukraine caused by the ongoing war. “They haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about democracy. But it gets to the point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he said.
Trump’s interview was recorded hours after Starmer welcomed Zelensky and other European leaders to London for crisis talks over the future of a US-backed peace plan for Ukraine, as well as the state of the transatlantic alliance.
Images of Starmer, Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hugging one another on the steps of No 10 were screened on US television on Monday night and graced the front pages of many US newspapers on Tuesday.
“They talk too much… and they’re not producing,” Trump said, just hours after Starmer claimed negotiations were at a “critical stage”, and Merz declared himself “sceptical” over aspects of the US-backed proposals.
“They talk, but they don’t produce, and the war just keeps going on and on,” Trump said, adding that Zelensky “is gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things… cause he’s losing”.
All this comes at a time of personal jeopardy for Trump back home, with the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files imminent and challenges related to his handling of inflation and pushback over immigrant raids on major US cities. Trump is also ratcheting up tensions with Venezuela and threatening to attack the country, while questions swirl around his overall health and stamina.
Trump arguably looks weaker than ever right now.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Starmer rejected Trump’s claims that European efforts have failed to produce results on Ukraine. “You’ve seen a number of countries involved in the coalition of the willing, you’ve also seen the work the UK has done in terms of leading the response on sanctions,” the unnamed official told reporters.
The spokesperson, however, cited “the strong relationship between the Prime Minister and the President” and would not comment on whether Starmer shares Trump’s belief that Europe is in “decay”. (Later in the day, No 10 said he does not agree with the President’s claim.)
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In the last week, Trump has made his plan for the transatlantic alliance perfectly clear, including his desire to boost the potential for “patriotic European parties” – read more right-wing populist parties – to triumph electorally.
That is the new reality confronting the Prime Minister. His continuing efforts to flatter Trump will soon become untenable, and the more Trump delivers on his intent to interfere with the UK’s democracy, the stronger calls will grow on the Prime Minister to condemn the new American strategy within Parliament and outside it.
Europe may not be decaying, but Trump isn’t helping that.
