Trump backed down from his demand that the U.S. be allowed to buy Greenland, but that did not appear to lower the temperature among the Europeans. Indeed, some observers saw the episode as a turning point.
“[Trump’s] erratic bullying has forced European leaders to recognize that they need independence from unreliable America,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote from Davos. But Ignatius noted that the Eurocrats realized they need to do more than declare independence—they also need to “break with their own moribund economic and security policies.”
Ignatius went on to explain that over the years, Europe has undermined its own security by skimping on defense spending, and then stifled its potential for economic growth by overtaxation and overregulation. Trump’s rough treatment of them in Davos, Ignatius said, was a “wake-up call.”
Here’s the thing: if Davos was a wake-up call for European leaders, it was a wake-up call to tell them they should have listened to Trump for the last decade.
On four of the most important issues facing Europe over that period, Trump gave Europe sound advice, which the Europeans at times ignored, dismissed, or even ridiculed.
First, Trump told Europe: You’re killing yourself with mass migration. Stop.
Second, Trump told NATO: You’ve got to spend more on your own defense.
Third, Trump told the European Union: You’re hurting yourselves with draconian regulations.
And fourth, Trump told former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others: Don’t build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. It’s a terrible idea to depend on Putin’s Russia for your energy.
Trump was right about each of those things. Many Europeans still refuse to recognize that. But others see some positive effect from Trump.
NATO Secretary Mark Rutte credits Trump for many countries’ increases in defense spending. “Would it ever have happened if President Trump had not been reelected as President of the United States? Absolutely not,” Rutte told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Wednesday.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/4432331/europeans-better-off-if-they-listened-to-trump/
