Europe’s response to Trump
Convicted felon Donald Trump expects Britain to decide between loyalty to the United States and loyalty to NATO. Prime minister Keir Starmer rejects this false dichotomy. “I want to be clear at the outset,” Starmer said, “against the backdrop of these dangerous times, the idea that we must choose between our allies, that somehow we’re with either America or Europe, is plain wrong. I reject it utterly. [Former prime minister Clement] Attlee did not choose between allies. Churchill did not choose. The national interest demands that we work with both.”
What no one has the guts to admit, including Starmer, is that this false dichotomy exists because it’s what Vladimir Putin wants. Donald Trump would have little or nothing to say against NATO if Putin didn’t hate NATO with furious passion. Trump’s lie that NATO countries aren’t “pulling their weight” has no basis in reality. Trump is merely doing Putin’s bidding.
Putin sees NATO as a persistent antagonism hailing back to the days when it was a check against the power of the Soviet Union. Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union and re-establish it as a superpower. NATO’s growing stronghold in Europe has always been a threat to that ambition. The convicted felon Donald Trump has proven to be a godsend for Putin.
Nevertheless, Putin has nothing but contempt for Donald Trump, and he cannot resist the temptation to display that contempt to the world. While sycophantic Trump does Putin’s bidding, Putin instructs Russian State Television to broadcast nude photos of Melania Trump. When Trump claimed last month that he and Putin had a private talk about ending the war in Ukraine, Putin issued an official denial of the entire conversation. Trump may be doing Putin’s bidding, but Putin is making it abundantly clear that there is nothing mutual about their arrangement.
Clearly, Britain’s prime minister knows all this, but chooses to remain silent on the topic. His disavowal of Trump’s implied line in the sand, that Britain is either for Trump or against Trump, is a small part of Starmer’s far more nuanced world. The British prime minister is now faced with a tightrope to walk, a tightrope that didn’t exist under Joe Biden’s administration. It was never a problem — until now. Until the incoming “president” made it unequivocally clear that he is an avowed enemy of democracy and an avowed friend of America’s greatest enemy.
Because Russia is no longer the superpower it once was, it can no longer summon the necessary military might it needs to defeat Ukraine. America’s calamitous decision in picking a convicted felon over an enlightened and experienced woman is one giant, ugly chicken coming home to roost. Putin will get the help he needs, and Ukraine will quite probably fall.
The world is strangely silent about the fact that convicted felon Donald Trump is Constitutionally debarred from retaking the oath of office. Section 3 of the 14th amendment of the Constitution forbids anyone who participated in an insurrection, or anyone who gives aid or comfort to an insurrectionist, from holding any government office. So cries that Trump cannot remain for a third term or even a fourth — should he somehow live that long — because of the Constitution are rendered absurd. Constitution? What Constitution?
Trump’s disdain for NATO and threats to impose crippling tariffs are only the beginning of troubles for America’s Allies. Trump’s very act of assuming office is an act of lawlessness. The ramifications are probably more terrible than anyone can or is willing to contemplate. Be that as it may, brothers and sisters, take care of yourselves, and if you can, take care of someone else too.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.