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Apparently, Trump buys the conservative line that the Europeans are effete dandies.
And, like the bully he is, Trump is aggressive with those he feels are weak, and an obsequious lap dog to those he sees as strong.
Mild in Mideast, Trump Is All Elbows in a Europe Eager to Jab Back
TAORMINA, Sicily — “Trump shoves his allies,” read the front page of Belgium’s Le Soir. “Boor in chief” declared Germany’s financial newspaper Handelsblatt. An editorial in Le Monde called him “brutal and heavy-handed.”
President Trump is winning as many headlines in Europe as he did in the Middle East. But as he arrived in the beguiling seaside town of Taormina for a meeting of the Group of 7 countries on Friday, the smooth statesman celebrated in Saudi Arabia and Israel is now being portrayed as the ugly American, trampling America’s friends and trashing the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Whether it was lecturing NATO members for their inadequate contributions to the alliance, scolding Germany for its trade surplus with the United States, or pushing the leader of Montenegro out of his way at a photo shoot, Mr. Trump has switched from diplomat to disrupter.
It is a more familiar role for the president, one his aides say will pay dividends for the United States in the form of better trade deals and more equitable security arrangements.
But critics say that his behavior overlooks the fact that America’s most durable alliances are in Europe, not the Middle East, and that Europeans are not likely to buy Mr. Trump’s bluster.
“Everybody sees that he’s trying to be a tough negotiator with the Europeans, whom he apparently views as a bunch of weaklings,” said Daniel Gros, the director of the Center for European Policy Studies, a think tank in Brussels. “But nobody sees any use in firing back. They think there will be very little action on trade. Ultimately, they think it’s harmless.”
On Friday evening, White House officials reported that Mr. Trump’s first day of meetings with the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan had been lively and productive. The leaders discussed terrorism, North Korea, Iran, trade and climate change, they said, and there was even hope that the United States and Europe might stake out some common ground on the future of the Paris climate accord.
Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, compared the atmosphere to a family dinner with his three daughters, in which all those at the table are confident about their views. “There was a lot of what I would call pushing and prodding,” Mr. Cohn said, “I think the president learned how important it is for the United States to show leadership.”
Still, the tone was a notable departure from the visit to the Middle East, where Mr. Trump scrupulously avoided lecturing the Saudis on human rights or the Israelis on their construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. His harsh statements in Europe suggested that he could be most divisive American leader to join this rarefied club since it was first organized in 1975.
In Brussels on Thursday, he told European leaders that Germany was “very bad” and complained about “chronic underpayments” to NATO. German news organizations reported that he had threatened to cut off imports of German cars, and several of them — with a touch of hyperbole resulting from an imprecise translation of Mr. Trump’s comments into German — said that he had called Germans “very evil.”
As Mr. Trump showed up on Friday in an ancient amphitheater to be received by Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy, Mr. Cohn was busy cleaning up those comments.
“He said they’re very bad on trade, but he doesn’t have a problem with Germany,” Mr. Cohn said. “He said his dad is from Germany.” (In fact, Mr. Trump’s grandfather, not father, emigrated from Germany.)
Whatever his intentions, Mr. Trump cut a rancorous swath through the administrative heart of Europe. At a ceremony to dedicate a new NATO headquarters, Mr. Trump accused his fellow leaders of not paying their fair share of the alliance’s expenses.
Later, while taking what is known as the “family photo” of leaders, Mr. Trump shoved past the prime minister of tiny Montenegro, Dusko Markovic, to get to his assigned spot, before straightening up, pulling the sides of his coat together and surveying the room. The video of the incident, which quickly got wide attention on the internet, seemed to crystallize Mr. Trump’s backhanded treatment of Europeans.
“President Donald Trump said he was solicitous not to ‘admonish’ leaders of the Arab world,” the editorial in Le Monde said. “The American president did not trouble himself over such consideration with his European allies.”
Last edited by Goose (5/27/2017 6:36 am)
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More damage.