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The hilarious irony is that Trump has been yelling at Europe since ~2017 to stop being so reliant on the US for everything, to pay more for its own defense, sto

The hilarious irony is that Trump has been yelling at Europe since ~2017 to stop being so reliant on the US for everything, to pay more for its own defense, stop regulating and start innovating, etc. Basically everything that's in the Draghi report. Meanwhile, EU bureaucrats' heads appear to remain firmly buried in the sand.

mrtksn 5mo ago
EU isn’t governed by the china communist party, the only way to stop being reliant to US is to stop trade with US and the cost of it will be enormous. Trump needs to create such a high political risk that the economic damage be justified. He definitely did a lot to help, but the damage needs to be irreparable so that business can feel safe from US competition. He needs to do do something so outrageous that Germany would not mind losing the US car market for example.
- tjwebbnorfolk 5mo ago
  I think one could argue that he tried this "the easy way" in his first term. He vented against Nord Stream with NATO, he vented against the regulations and the energy dependence and closing the nuke reactors. But he didn't actually do anything about it. The difference now is that he's turning the screws and putting the pressure on. Call this "the hard way". I can understand why EU leaders do not like this one bit. But also, they had their chance...
  - mrtksn 5mo ago
    The Nord Stream is epic but he didn't argue for independence, he is arguing for US-dependence instead of Russia-dependence so this isn't flying as well as Americans believe it is because that was actually German issue, not EU wide thing at all. EU wide policy was renewables and as it turns out they are the right direction for independence. In general, local governments are very unpopular in EU and Europe, everyone likes EU more than they like their governments.
    - tjwebbnorfolk 5mo ago
      He's been yelling at the UK to tap the North Sea fields forever, and for Germany not to mothball their nuke reactors. How is that adding dependence on the US?
raincole 5mo ago
Another hilarious fact: Trump has warned about Nord Stream 2, called it "a tool of coercion."[0] At this point it almost seems like Trump cares Europe more than EU leaders. [0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50879435 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50879435
- mrtksn 5mo ago
  He was reflecting, what he meant was if I had a pipeline to you that you are dependent on I would coerce you. He kept trying coerce EU with whatever US had on EU.

mrtksn 5mo ago

EU isn’t governed by the china communist party, the only way to stop being reliant to US is to stop trade with US and the cost of it will be enormous. Trump needs to create such a high political risk that the economic damage be justified. He definitely did a lot to help, but the damage needs to be irreparable so that business can feel safe from US competition. He needs to do do something so outrageous that Germany would not mind losing the US car market for example.

tjwebbnorfolk 5mo ago
I think one could argue that he tried this "the easy way" in his first term. He vented against Nord Stream with NATO, he vented against the regulations and the energy dependence and closing the nuke reactors. But he didn't actually do anything about it. The difference now is that he's turning the screws and putting the pressure on. Call this "the hard way". I can understand why EU leaders do not like this one bit. But also, they had their chance...
- mrtksn 5mo ago
  The Nord Stream is epic but he didn't argue for independence, he is arguing for US-dependence instead of Russia-dependence so this isn't flying as well as Americans believe it is because that was actually German issue, not EU wide thing at all. EU wide policy was renewables and as it turns out they are the right direction for independence. In general, local governments are very unpopular in EU and Europe, everyone likes EU more than they like their governments.
  - tjwebbnorfolk 5mo ago
    He's been yelling at the UK to tap the North Sea fields forever, and for Germany not to mothball their nuke reactors. How is that adding dependence on the US?

raincole 5mo ago

Another hilarious fact: Trump has warned about Nord Stream 2, called it "a tool of coercion."[0] At this point it almost seems like Trump cares Europe more than EU leaders. [0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50879435 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50879435

mrtksn 5mo ago
He was reflecting, what he meant was if I had a pipeline to you that you are dependent on I would coerce you. He kept trying coerce EU with whatever US had on EU.