WASHINGTON — Following a full year of praising President Donald Trump as if he were a toddler who must be coaxed into eating his vegetables, only to have him threaten a fellow NATO member regardless, America’s traditional European allies appear to be rethinking that strategy.
“President Trump is acting like an international gangster,” Ed Davey, a member of Britain’s Parliament, told his House of Commons colleagues Tuesday. “Threatening to trample over the sovereignty of an ally, threatening the end of NATO altogether, and now threatening to hit our country and seven European allies with outrageous, damaging tariffs, unless he gets his hands on Greenland.”
Anders Vistisen, a Danish member of the European Parliament, was even more blunt, beginning his remarks at an official session in Brussels last week with: “Let me put this in words you might understand: Mr. President, fuck off.”
Even officials from larger, multi-nation organizations expressed frustration with Trump, who is to deliver a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
“We will be pragmatic when we can be, firm when we must,” said Nadia Calvino, president of the European Investment Bank, an arm of the 27-member European Union.
