Section: European Voice (EU)
The government secrets Trump is about to discover
When Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952, outgoing President Harry Truman informed him of an important secret: Days before the election the United States had tested the world’s first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific. The nation now possessed a weapon roughly a hundred times as powerful as any before — and almost...
Brussels gets ‘House of Cards’ treatment
AMSTERDAM — Corruption, murder, and betrayal stalk the streets of Brussels — at least in a Dutch television series inspired by the U.S. hit “House of Cardsâ€Â that premieres Friday. “Brussel” mixes the personal and the political in a drama that weaves together the migration crisis, trouble in...
Germany’s last Atlanticist confronts Trump
BERLIN — On Friday evening, many in Europe will be huddled in front of their television sets, watching Donald Trump’s inauguration in a fog of foreboding and disbelief. The schadenfreude some may have felt after the American election has given way to cold fear. As the president-elect repeatedly dismisses European...
The Trumputin trap
Donald Trump is an avowed admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sees himself as a brilliant dealmaker. As he settles in following his inauguration, the newly seated U.S. president will likely be tempted to seek a grand bargain with the Kremlin to transform sour relations between Washington and Moscow into cooperation in the...
Key moments from Obama’s final news conference
President Barack Obama strolled into the tightly packed White House briefing room Wednesday, a day after his controversial commutation of Chelsea Manning and less than two days before he will depart 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for the final time as America’s commander in chief. Below are the highlights: Obama took a jab at the incoming...
Pentagon chief to Trump: Don’t expect Russian thaw
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has some parting advice for Donald Trump as the president-elect tries to improve relations with Russia: Don’t get your hopes up. Trump is likely to find exceedingly few areas where Washington and Moscow’s interests still align, the outgoing Pentagon chief told POLITICO on Tuesday. And it may be most...
Why Is Trump picking on Merkel?
LONDON — After Senate confirmation, it looks like the next task for the incoming administration’s secretaries of state and defense, Rex Tillerson and Jim Mattis, is destined to be damage control. That’s because of the fallout here in Europe from President-elect Donald Trump’s unusual commentary on...
Trump to Europe: Drop dead
EDINBURGH — It is, remarkably, no exaggeration to say that almost everyone in Europe awaits the presidency of Donald Trump with a sense of dread. Almost everyone, that is, save for the resurgent parties of the populist far-right who see, in Trump, an example they dearly wish to emulate. The European mainstream, however, shrinks from Trump as it...
Make internationalism great again
WASHINGTON — Across the West, nationalism has been appropriated by political forces that are isolationist, illiberal, and protectionist. For proponents of open societies, this poses a problem. In election after election, voters have demonstrated that when asked to pick between abstract internationalism and allegiance to their...
Marine Le Pen wins ‘Putin’s champion’ award
The leader of France’s far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, was named the inaugural “Putin’s champion” by the European Values think tank Monday. The tongue-in-cheek award will be given to the Western public figure who best exhibits “friendliness and appeasement” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy every...
