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The Russian rhetoric indicates the direction of travel is toward normalizing the U.S.-Russian relationship. | Maxim Shipenkov\/EFE via EPA<\/p>\nNo disinterested observer, after all, can avoid the impression that the administration\u2019s preferred policy is \u2014\u00a0well \u2014\u00a0to do nothing. \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed in Russia,\u201d Trump said at a press conference earlier this month, before adding that he was also \u201cdisappointed in Ukraine\u201d and appearing to give credit to Vladimir Putin for Russia\u2019s sacrifices in World War II. The same day, June 12, Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Russia on its National Day \u2014 a step not taken by a U.S. administration since 2022. Meanwhile, Hegseth assiduously dodged answering the question of whether Russia is the aggressor in the war.<\/p>\n
The Russian rhetoric indicates the direction of travel is toward normalizing the U.S.-Russian relationship. | Maxim Shipenkov\/EFE via EPA<\/p>\n
The Trump administration might be constrained by the fact that many of the sanctions against Russia are mandated by Congress and thus hard to reverse. The Russian rhetoric indicates the direction of travel is toward normalizing the U.S.-Russian relationship, not toward Senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s punitive bill penalizing countries buying Russian oil with a de-facto trade embargo.<\/p>\n
All of these facts are unpleasant \u2014 but they are part of the reality that the U.K. and Europeans have to deal with. The best way to do so is with stoicism and determination \u2014 and with a European version of Teddy Roosevelt\u2019s dictum about being quiet and carrying a big stick.<\/p>\n
The EU is a $20-trillion economy. The U.K. adds another $4 billion, give or take. With a leadership that understands what is at stake \u2014 and it appears that Macron, Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz, Poland\u2019s Donald Tusk, Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen do, among others, do \u2014 it can re-arm itself and bankroll Ukraine to eventual membership in the European bloc.<\/p>\n
Both the U.K. and the EU should be also pursuing, jointly, an ambitious agenda of trade liberalization, working around America\u2019s arbitrary protectionism rather than trying to accommodate Trump\u2019s every whim. Talk of \u201cspecial relationship\u201d notwithstanding, Trump\u2019s commitment to protectionism should provide a straightforward impetus for likeminded and geographically close economies to huddle.<\/p>\n
On all of those fronts, the British and the Europeans need action \u2013 and definitely fewer high-stake summits at which Trump tries to \u00e9pater les bourgeois. The current moment in transatlantic relations shall pass and we will see a day when the United States will be ready to be a constructive partner again, one hopes. Until then, however, both the U.K. and the EU are committing an act of self-harm by letting the parameters of the American political debate frame the conversations on security, Ukraine, and trade that the old continent needs to have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No disinterested observer, after all, can avoid the impression that the administration\u2019s preferred policy is \u2014\u00a0well \u2014\u00a0to do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[473,7057,5293,32,5898,2595,34,37846,36,1945,1824,2440,366,2199,660,47778,43,2820,2598,32949,809,2661,602,770,46,1217,332,2663,811,479,1201,6717,657,15,49,1220,333,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-206554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-defense-budgets","10":"tag-diplomacy","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-donald-tusk","13":"tag-drones","14":"tag-emmanuel-macron","15":"tag-feed","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-friedrich-merz","18":"tag-germany","19":"tag-giorgia-meloni","20":"tag-greenland","21":"tag-italy","22":"tag-kremlin","23":"tag-lindsey-graham","24":"tag-macron","25":"tag-marco-rubio","26":"tag-missiles","27":"tag-nato-summit","28":"tag-negotiations","29":"tag-oil","30":"tag-pete-hegseth","31":"tag-poland","32":"tag-policy","33":"tag-protectionism","34":"tag-russia","35":"tag-sanctions","36":"tag-security","37":"tag-tariffs","38":"tag-trade","39":"tag-transatlantic-relations","40":"tag-ukraine","41":"tag-united-kingdom","42":"tag-united-states","43":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","44":"tag-vladimir-putin","45":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}