The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, is urging members of the European Union to prepare themselves for ‘worst-case scenarios’ as tensions between Europe and the United States continue to rise. This isn’t the first time Tusk has come out with negative talk about his Trans-Atlantic ally, as he has previously stated that with friends like Trump ‘who needs enemies?’.
Associated Press reports:
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Council President Donald Tusk says the European Union must prepare for the worst due to the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, as a trade war looms between Washington and Brussels.
In a letter to EU leaders Wednesday, Tusk wrote that “trans-Atlantic relations are under immense pressure due to the policies of President Trump.”
Tusk, who chairs a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels starting Thursday, said that “unfortunately, the divisions go beyond trade.”
He wrote: “It is my belief that, while hoping for the best, we must be ready to prepare our Union for worst-case scenarios.”
Earlier this month, Trump slapped tariffs on imports of European steel and aluminum. The EU responded with “rebalancing measures” that hit around 2.8 billion euros ($3.25 billion) worth of U.S. products.
The differences between Europe and the United States are typically perceived as that of trade tariffs, and that everything can and will resume the course that it has held for the past several decades just as soon as some sort of agreement is scored between the 28 nation bloc and POTUS Donald Trump, who thinks he’s using these tariffs as a negotiating tool.
However, that’s not entirely the case, and the patch up is not likely to go down precisely in that fashion, as what is happening here is that a major fault line is being exposed between the way the Europeans and Americans perceive trade, international relations, international agreements, and the position of nations in the world order, and perhaps what their definition of these things even is.
Trump believes in national exceptionalism, particularly that of America, and he doesn’t believe in multilateral, rules-based, orders. Europe likes to think in terms of ‘win-win’ agreements between multiple parties, where Trump sees everything in ‘win-lose’ terms, meaning that there are fundamental differences here between what is valued between the Europeans and the Americans. That’s why Tusk is declaring that there is more to this than just a few import taxes.
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