Top diplomatic vacancies and transatlantic tensions leave European Union leaders looking to November’s election.
With five months to go until the U.S. election, transatlantic relations are at a new low — just as many experts say cooperation has never been more crucial.
At the start of his presidency, Donald Trump regarded Europe as an afterthought. Now, there seems little left to the relationship but a bitter aftertaste for EU leaders who spent three years trying and failing to coax and cajole the combustible American into buying into the Western alliance.
They no longer have any illusion that Trump is going to change. The only question left is: Will he win in November?
After German Chancellor Angela Merkel demurred from attending the in-person G-7 summit later this month, citing the continuing health risk of the coronavirus, Trump lashed out, deriding the club of economic powers “outdated” — just as he branded NATO “obsolete” at the start of his term. Trump also voiced yet again his wish for Russia, which was kicked out of the G-8 over its invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, to rejoin the group. The U.K., Canada and the EU swiftly rejected the idea, further underscoring the deep split among Western powers.
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European leaders thought the relationship was bad, but at least had stabilized. Amid the coronavirus crisis, however, there’s no question things have gotten worse.
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In Brussels and other EU capitals, recent events have only confirmed the genuineness of Trump’s instincts regarding transatlantic relations: to treat America’s closest historic allies as punching bags, to be kicked at in the rare moments when they aren’t totally forgotten in a dark corner of the basement of his brain.
Meanwhile, Trump’s calls for stronger crackdowns and the militarized response to many street protests across the U.S., including the arrests of journalists and use of tear gas on unarmed demonstrators, have heightened fears in Europe that there is something deeply broken in U.S. society that even replacing Trump might not fix.
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While the street clashes have raised new worries about where America is headed, it is the far more mundane issue of diplomatic appointments that has sent Europeans an unequivocal message about how transatlantic relations don’t rank as a priority.
It was not until July 2018, nearly a year and a half into Trump’s term, that the U.S. finally had an ambassador to the EU. Gordon Sondland, a longtime Republican Party fundraiser and hotel developer from Seattle, lasted little more than another year and a half before he was fired in what was widely viewed as retribution for his testimony to Congress during the impeachment investigation.
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While Sondland was forced out, the other most prominent U.S. diplomat in Europe — the ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell — left voluntarily. Grenell returned to Washington earlier this year to serve as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, while retaining his ambassador post. But on Tuesday, his resignation became official and Robin Quinville, a career foreign service officer, took over as chargé d’affaires.
Grenell, an aggressive supporter of Trump’s policies, at times stirred controversy in Germany, including by saying he hoped to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe” and by harshly criticizing Berlin over its defense spending, the NordStream 2 gas pipeline project, which Trump opposes, and the Iran nuclear deal, among other issues.
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The State Department has insisted that relations with Europe remain strong, and that close cooperation with the EU continues quietly behind the scenes.
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Meanwhile, old disagreements persist. EU leaders also have little hope that outstanding trade disputes will be resolved before the November election. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in fact, has not visited Washington since taking office on December 1.
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With five months to go until the U.S. election, transatlantic relations are at a new low https://t.co/mS4gnXbk0d
— POLITICO (@politico) June 4, 2020
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