President Trump’s tariff war with Europe is wrongheaded, but hardly the only issue separating “our closest allies” from America, the country too many on the continent love to hate.
Well before his threatened steel and aluminum restrictions on European countries (as well as on Canada and Mexico), Trump slaughtered some of Europe’s most sacred cows.
He withdrew from the Paris accord on greenhouse-gas emissions and broke away from the Iran deal. Europeans strongly believe the former will save the planet. (It won’t.) They also hope the latter will tame the Islamic Republic. (Again, nope.) As important, they want their continent’s economies to have access to Iranian markets.
Then Trump offended the Euros’ collective sense of decorum by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
But on that, as on other issues, Europeans are far from united.
Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăancilă visited Israel’s capital recently and her government tentatively approved moving its embassy there. For that, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called on Dăancilă to resign, accusing her of making “secret deals” with the Jews.
And Germany, once a top Israel booster, privately sided with Iohannis and against recognizing Israel’s capital. After Romania moves its embassy, Berlin fears, the Czechs, Bulgarians and others may also break ranks with the European Union.
A Washington source tells me the US ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, has advised the Germans against interfering in their neighbors’ deliberations over embassy location. Other US envoys should also advocate the move to Jerusalem.
Beyond the embassy, challenging the fictional EU “consensus” will demonstrate that some Europeans have more in common with America than with their fellow domineering continental partners.
Meanwhile, despite playing hardball in public, France and Britain (among others) are quietly attempting to bridge the gaps with America over the Iran deal.
Also, Europe’s energy giants Total and BP recently canceled signed deals with Iran — along with top shipping firm Maersk and various European insurers. They’d rather do business with America when forced to choose.
So slighted European leaders go running to the United Nations.
Last week none of the five European nations on the Security Council supported a text, proposed by America’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, that would solely blame Hamas for recent deadly Gaza clashes. France and Sweden sided with Hamas in another council vote, proposed by Kuwait, to protect Gaza’s Palestinians from the evil Israelis.
Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel, long presiding over Europe’s largest economy, recently said the continent can no longer rely on America and should instead defend itself.
Well, good luck with that.
Germany is currently one of NATO’s worst deadbeat members, investing a mere 1.22 percent of its GDP in the military. That’s well below the alliance’s agreed-on 2 percent. America spends more than 3.5 percent of GDP on the military. The US is by far the most muscular NATO member, as it has been since the alliance’s inception.
Germans have grown fat under America’s military umbrella. They and other Europeans developed a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil attitude, which is increasingly untenable in a growingly hostile world.
Demanding more European funding for defense was one of Trump’s early mantras. Yet this year Germany is, at best, expected to up its military budget to 1.5 percent of its GDP. The only Europeans that contribute their required share are Greece, Estonia, Britain and Poland. The rest slouch toward Germany.
How will Europe, then, “defend itself” — let alone contribute to global security?
Will its carriers sail the Pacific, where Europeans hope to surpass America in exports to Asia, but where China threatens to dominate and limit freedom of navigation? And what if, God forbid, a future nuclear-armed Iran turns its ire on one of the continent’s capitals?
So yes, Trump’s proposed tariffs are bad news for global free trade. They’ll hit Americans first — in our pocketbooks. Also, despite it all, Europe remains an important partner and ally. Trade wars will only harm the alliance.
Yet, as many of its politicians drift further and further away from America, few in Europe can genuinely plead “friendship” as they demand exclusion from US tariffs.
Made by those who’ve grown less amicable, that argument is just poor salesmanship.
