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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Maybe Europe Needs Trump

Tough love from the US could spur the Continent to deal with problems on its own.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Donald Trump speaks at a House Republicans Conference on November 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Allison Robbert via Getty Images)
Caption
Donald Trump speaks at a House Republicans Conference on November 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Allison Robbert via Getty Images)

It’s been another tough year for our European friends. As mobs stormed through the streets of Amsterdam baying for Jewish blood in one of the most shocking European pogroms since the Nazi era, French statisticians reported that 2023 saw the in France in any year since World War II. Economies have stagnated across the eurozone, India is poised to leapfrog Germany and become the world’s economy, China’s surging exports threaten key European industries, and Europe’s struggling tech companies are falling further behind their American, Chinese, Indian and Israeli competitors.

The Continent’s security situation is equally dire. As North Korean forces gear up for battle in Ukraine, the fragile Western consensus over Ukraine policy has collapsed. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, presumably fishing for votes in the coming election, broke ranks with his European colleagues to make a phone call to Russian President . The response wasn’t propitious. Since the chancellor and the president ended their chat, Russia has dramatically escalated its missile attacks on Ukraine. Isolating Germany further, on the other side of the Atlantic the Biden administration on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to attack targets deep inside Russia.

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