Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Emmanuel Macron are all seeking close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump. Each brings advantages and weaknesses to this task. But Europe as a whole remains too weak to impress America’s new administration.
Donald Trump and his biggest fan in the EU, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Zoltan Fischer / EPA
Optimieren Sie Ihre Browsereinstellungen
NZZ.ch benötigt JavaScript für wichtige Funktionen. Ihr Browser oder Adblocker verhindert dies momentan.
Bitte passen Sie die Einstellungen an.
When Donald Trump moved into the U.S. White House for the first time in January 2017, Europe was collectively outraged. Most leaders had assumed that Democrat Barack Obama’s policy agenda would be continued. Most expected Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton to be elected. She was a familiar figure, having served as first lady, wife of the pop star president of the 1990s, Bill Clinton, and then as secretary of state under Obama. The Europeans’ reaction to Trump reflected the attitude of the Democratic-minded East Coast intelligentsia, with whom the Europeans share close ties.
This time everything is different. Immediately after the U.S. election on Nov. 5, 2024, European heads of state and government queued up to congratulate Trump. Capitals across the continent made efforts in advance to establish contacts in the Trump camp. Even if some policymakers have occasionally sounded a critical tone, most are overall making an effort to avoid being caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s temper.
In large part, this is because it is today more obvious than ever that Europe is dependent upon America – economically as well as in terms of security policy. Trump has the power to withdraw U.S. security support from the Europeans, thus exposing them to Russia. Moreover, he can target them with punitive economic policy measures. The threat of tariffs hangs in the air.
Policymakers and observers generally assume that Trump is prepared to carry out his threats – even if it now appears that the harshest rhetoric emerging from Trump’s transformed White House does not always wind up being implemented as policy.
After the first round of congratulations, most European leaders have taken a wait-and-see approach. However, some have sought to stake out a clear position for themselves in the U.S. administration’s early days in an effort to get ahead of others, and in hopes of being seen by Trump as privileged European partners. This in turn will strengthen their position in Europe, they believe.
Orbán sees himself on the winning side
The first to do so was Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has for years been conducting a charm offensive aimed at Trump and his entourage. Orbán presents himself as a kind of European offshoot of the nationalist and right-wing conservative MAGA – «Make America Great Again» – movement. Writing on Elon Musk’s X social media platform, Orbán was effusive in his praise for Trump even when other Europeans were still hoping for a victory for Democrat Kamala Harris. In return, he has received several invitations to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, first in July 2024 and again after the election in December 2024. After his July visit, Orbán posted on X that the two had talked about ways to bring peace in Ukraine. «The good news of the day: He’s going to solve it!» Orbán wrote in English, referring to Trump.
In an interview with the NZZ in early February, Hungary’s prime minister said with great satisfaction: «We were the black sheep of the West. Now it is clear that what Trump is doing and what we have done over the last 15 years is the future.» Two weeks after Trump’s inauguration, Orbán took to X to explain more precisely what he means by this. «The gender madness in America is over, the financing of globalist Soros organizations is over, illegal migration is over, and support for the Russian-Ukrainian war is also over,» he wrote. A new wind is blowing in international politics, he argued. «Everyone in Brussels can see the Trump tornado coming, but most still think they can get away from it. They won’t.»
But Orbán may have been premature in cheering his own advance. The fact that he has opened the door wide to Chinese investment in Hungary could prove to come back to haunt him. Significant forces within the Trump administration do not want to weaken the United States’ geopolitical competition with China, but rather intensify it.
And then there is the fact that Orbán was not invited to Trump’s inauguration in Washington – unlike Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Perhaps Trump and his team have begun to see Orbán as a windbag from an irrelevant small state. For Trump, the only thing that counts is power. Orbán, who is largely isolated in Europe, has very little of that.
Meloni as a bridge builder
Meloni, the second would-be Trump whisperer, is in a different league. Although Italy is not Europe’s peak power, it is in fourth place behind the big three – Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Italy is also part of the important G7 group, in which the Europeans meet regularly with the United States, Canada and Japan.
However, Meloni was recently branded a false friend by Steve Bannon, the political strategist and Trump ally who sees himself as a kind of guardian of the MAGA movement. Bannon told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Meloni had sided with the «globalists,» and was in favor of military support for Ukraine.
Unlike Orbán, Italy’s prime minister has not cultivated ties with the MAGA movement, but rather with the tech billionaires who are proving particularly influential during Trump’s second term in office. This is particularly true of Trump intimate Musk. The two are considered good friends.
Meloni sat near Trump at the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and made a pilgrimage to see him at Mar-a-Lago in early 2025. Trump was evidently impressed. «I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy,» he told a crowd of onlookers at his club, according to CNN. «She’s really taken Europe by storm.» Meloni was the only European head of government to have received a personal invitation to the new president’s inauguration. Many see her as a future transatlantic bridge builder.
Macron’s leadership ambitions
Finally, French President Emmanuel Macron is also striving to play the role of a privileged European partner. As the head of state in France, Macron also has a position of power that is more interesting for the White House than that of Orban or Meloni.
As always, Macron is relying on what he considers to be his personal charm. He is also trying to impress Trump with pomp and the myths of French power and greatness. Macron was one of the first world leaders to offer congratulations after Trump’s reelection, and he managed to lure Trump to Paris in December for Notre Dame’s reopening to herald a new period of cooperation. In this sense, Macron fervently hopes for something like a relationship of equals. On X, he wrote that he wants to work with Trump «with your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.»
But even in Trump’s first term of office, Macron failed to attain anything like equality. The Republican listened to Macron in a friendly manner, returned his firm handshake – and then mostly ignored the French president. The project with which Macron hoped to raise his own international standing, the establishment of European «sovereignty,» failed due to Parisian arrogance, and because it failed to accord with the interests and ideas of the EU’s other members.
Last week, Macron pulled off another small coup with his summit on artificial intelligence in Paris. U.S. Vice President JD Vance was there and gave a speech that drew widespread attention – in which, however, he accused the Europeans of stifling the opportunities afforded by the new technology with excessive regulation. But again there were some nice pictures: Vance had arrived with his wife and children.
A question of power
However, all the charm, nice pictures and friendly invitations cannot conceal the fact that the balance of power between Europe and the United States has changed between Trump’s first and second terms in office. The U.S. has continued to grow economically, and is in the midst of the AI revolution. Team Biden has left Trump with an overall advantageous global situation thanks to the clever management of alliances.
Europe, on the other hand, is economically battered, and is lagging behind the United States and China in the technological race. Moreover, it has failed to put Ukraine in an advantageous position from which it could have helped quell Russia’s renewed expansionism.
The Europeans will be able to win back U.S. respect only if they buckle down and accomplish a list of overdue tasks: opening up the economy to new ideas; providing targeted support for technology; investing massively in education, infrastructure and defense; and settling on a geopolitical strategy common to the continent’s major capitals. European political leaders will be able to engage in dialogue with the American president on an equal footing only if they are themselves coming from a position of strength. This is not currently the case.
Latest articles
Global reporting. Swiss-quality journalism.
In today’s increasingly polarized media market, the Switzerland-based NZZ offers a critical and fact-based outside view. We are not in the breaking-news business. We offer thoughtful, well-researched stories and analyses that go behind the headlines to explain relevant events in the U.S., in Europe and worldwide. To produce this work, the NZZ maintains an industry-leading network of expert reporters around the globe who work closely with our main newsroom in Zurich.
Sign up for our free newsletter or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or WhatsApp.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67b48ee9e92248e293dedd3e0cf9ca7b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nzz.ch%2Fenglish%2Feuropes-leaders-jockey-to-become-trump-whisperers-ld.1871140&c=16298049006454604348&mkt=de-de
Author :
Publish date : 2025-02-18 03:22:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.