Trump camp finds no appeasement at Munich

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

Trump camp finds no appeasement at Munich

Author: MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG
Source: Politico
Publication Date: 02/16/2020 05:59 PM EST
Link: Trump camp finds no appeasement at Munich

Stephan: There is so much Trumpian criminality at home that what criminal Trump has done to America's stature abroad just kind of gets overlooked in American media. But that doesn't mean that this devastation isn't going on, or that foreign governments are not completely recalibrating downward their views about the United States. Here is one of many examples of what I mean.

MUNICH — For decades, the Munich Security Conference served as a powerful symbol of the strength of the Western alliance. The 2020 installment offered a testament to its accelerating decline.

If the three-day event, which drew to a close on Sunday, illustrated anything, it was that the divergence between the U.S. and the dominant European powers — Germany and France (the U.K. was MIA) — is greater than ever. Those who thought last year’s tense gathering represented a low point in the relationship left Munich this year chastened.

The two sides aren’t just far apart on the big questions facing the West (threats from Russia, Iran, China), they’re in parallel universes.

Most alarming: The biggest disconnect concerns the U.S. commitment to Europe, the very essence of the transatlantic alliance itself.

In speech after speech, whether in public or private, European leaders lamented […]

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