Get audio access with any FP subscription.

Subscribe Now

ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? LOGIN

Ongoing reports and analysis

In the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Greenland spectacle, liberal-minded U.S. politicians and foreign-policy experts are now openly pinning their hopes for the free world on a stiffening of the European spine. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for one, let loose this week in Davos, Switzerland, warning foreign governments against diplomacy with Trump: “He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you.”

Rooting for the other guy in a dispute with the United States does not come naturally to former and would-be U.S. foreign policymakers. But Washington’s abdication of its global leadership role—and its unprecedented threats against NATO allies in its quest to take over Greenland—has begun to turn the tables. Although Trump may have blinked on Greenland for now, there is a growing sense among this set that only Europe’s unflinching resolve will force the White House to take its commitment to international norms more seriously and keep the trans-Atlantic partnership alive to fight another day.

In the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Greenland spectacle, liberal-minded U.S. politicians and foreign-policy experts are now openly pinning their hopes for the free world on a stiffening of the European spine. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for one, let loose this week in Davos, Switzerland, warning foreign governments against diplomacy with Trump: “He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you.”

Rooting for the other guy in a dispute with the United States does not come naturally to former and would-be U.S. foreign policymakers. But Washington’s abdication of its global leadership role—and its unprecedented threats against NATO allies in its quest to take over Greenland—has begun to turn the tables. Although Trump may have blinked on Greenland for now, there is a growing sense among this set that only Europe’s unflinching resolve will force the White House........

© Foreign Policy