Trump's Unappreciated Holiday Gift to America's Allies |
PARIS – Remember being a kid and ripping open presents on Christmas morning, only to discover one relative slipped you an envelope of cash instead of yet another oversized plastic monstrosity? That's Europe right now. Sulking because Trump handed them a practical gift instead of another useless one of transatlantic affection.
Trump's latest National Security Strategy didn't supply Europe with its usual warm bath of flattery about shared values and eternal friendship. Instead, it tossed them a cold splash of reality – one that could actually help everyday Europeans and the continent's political class, who've grown addicted to grandiose gestures that look meaningful but accomplish nothing. If only they'd stop pouting long enough to notice the value.
The document points a stern finger at the European Union – that towering bureaucracy, led by an unelected executive presiding over 27 nations – accusing it of undercutting "political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition...and loss of national identities and self-confidence."
Europe's response was largely to blow it off as more evidence of Trump falling into Russia's arms. Bloomberg reported that they're........