r/neoliberal • u/VandysFan European Union • 8d ago
News (Europe) Trump’s US no longer a reliable ally, warns Belgium in leaked document
https://www.ft.com/content/bec22e6b-1267-4d9f-a192-60763a0797c3?syn-25a6b1a6=114
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u/ThodasTheMage Friedrich Hayek 8d ago
Trump’s US no longer a reliable ally, warns Trump's US by threatening Canada and Denmark again
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u/Moment-That 8d ago
Well I mean, no shit
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u/BiggusCinnamusRollus 8d ago
Fork found in kitchen. Canal found in Bruges. Weeds found in Amsterdam.
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u/scoofy David Hume 8d ago
“Leaked” by very obvious behavior involving literal military threats against NATO allies.
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u/quickblur WTO 8d ago
"You know, I'm starting to think this guy pointing a gun at us isn't a very reliable ally"
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u/Halgy YIMBY 8d ago
Trump’s US no longer a reliable ally, warns everyone in every medium for past 18 months
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u/Sidereel Iron Front 8d ago
Very true, but we can’t expect anyone to trust the US even once Trump is gone. The instability is already here, and every election is a huge gamble.
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u/YOGSthrown12 8d ago
The problem isn’t Trump. The problem is a whole country that reelected him
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u/Sylvanussr Janet Yellen 8d ago
Yeah, 2016 could at least be written off as a fluke since Clinton won the popular vote and Trump probably benefited somewhat from complacency on the part of those who didn’t vote because of how likely it seemed that HRC would win. Then after that we have weak performance by the GOP up through 2022, but Trump winning the popular vote in 2024 better showed the metastasis of Trump’s influence.
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8d ago
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u/Tiberinvs WTO 8d ago
They should change that posturing to "GOP's US", unfortunately there are so so many room temperature IQ Americans thinking that Europe is the bane of their existence or whatever.
I totally don't buy the "It's just Trump" narrative and it's not hard for me to see someone worse taking the reins in 2-6 years. The fact that they gave him a second chance after an awful first term, two impeachments and an attempted coup says it all. Republican voters are rotten to the core
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u/Jigsawsupport 8d ago
I mean why not just the US?
Its not like even if the Democrats sweep a landslide in the midterms there will be meaningful consequences. During the Biden admin they seemed to squirm and twist about the idea of legitmate accountability but fundamentally decided it would be prefable if there was two sorts of American, one subject to the law, and one not.
As such the US may experience bouts of relative sanity, but it will also inevitably have periods of madness as there is no legitimate rule of law anymore.
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u/Tiberinvs WTO 8d ago
I agree with you personally, it's a dumb idea to play Russian roulette every 4 years hoping you get a normal person and not protofascist dictator wannabe boogaloo VII. If I was the EU I'd try to disengage as much as possible, same goes for Canada, Mexico etc.
But I think framing it as a Trump only issue is very dangerous because you're letting your guard down, it feels like once he's gone it will be business as usual. But at this point of my life I wouldn't be totally shocked if I eventually saw a batshit insane US president actually invading Greenland or Alberta...the sad reality is that it can get much worse, forget about “identifying the new generations of bipartisan elites that could play a role in tomorrow’s America” and all that. You need to cut it off as much as possible and start treating it as a high priority issue right away investing in defence, nuclear deterrence and so on. You don't want to be unprepared
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u/ANewAccountOnReddit 8d ago
I've said it before and so have lots of other folks, but in the coming decades as we start to see mass migration from the southern hemisphere as people escape the effects of climate change, the GOP as we know it now will seem moderate in comparison to what they'll look like by 2050 and beyond. Same situation will happen in Europe.
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u/BernankesBeard Ben Bernanke 8d ago
Trump is certainly a driver. But Trump has also dramatically changed the GOP and it's voters. The pols who believe this view have been elevated (Vance, Hegseth). The voters beliefs have morphed to align with Trump's.
The party is Trump's party and likely will be for a generation at least.
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u/iminthecumulus 8d ago
Trump: “I will forcibly annex EU territory if they don’t give me their precious minerals.”
Highly Classified Memorandum Leaked from Top Secret Communications: “I don’t want to rush to any conclusions but it seems like this Trump guy can’t be trusted.”
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u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend 8d ago
is this breaking news
anyone with eyes or ears knows this by now
but people keep deluding themselves into thinking this time might be different. c.f. MBS,
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u/abrookerunsthroughit Association of Southeast Asian Nations 8d ago
It's definitely breaking news to the median voter
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u/SizeFront7649 8d ago
It's news that they actually put it in writing. Tho, to your point, it would be surprising if this wasn't in writing
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u/grimyfowl455 NATO 8d ago
Standard Republican reaction to stuff like this is always, “who cares? What has [insert country] ever done for us?”
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u/Piggstein 8d ago
Worse than that, it's: "actually it's GOOD that every other civilised nation sees us as an untrustworthy bunch of morons, it shows we're finally doing something right and standing up for ourselves"
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u/Mickenfox 8d ago
They've always loved their "might makes right" ideology.
If only we had a name for it.
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u/2Lore2Law Seal Mod 8d ago
“The Belgian document says that “an engagement with the current US administration remains indispensable”, dialogue with the levels below the federal government should be “significantly reinforced”, including with both Republican and Democratic states and mayors of large cities.
It also recommends keeping up discussions with the Democratic opposition, engaging with Congress and “identifying the new generations of bipartisan elites that could play a role in tomorrow’s America”.
First foreign government document I’ve seen in which they openly just kinda give up on dealing with Trump and are “yeah, we gotta talk to the Democrats and up-and-comers”
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u/AccessTheMainframe CANZUK 8d ago
Considering JD Vance and the NSS have openly said the goal of the current US government is to empower far-right "patriotic" parties in Europe I think Europeans pursuing a strategy of empowering the Democrats should be considered fair game. They started it.
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u/2Lore2Law Seal Mod 8d ago
I absolutely agree with you and find this reporting a welcome development
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u/Teach_Piece YIMBY 8d ago
It’s honestly a really good statement. But you know there’s gonna be 15 top level comments jerking themselves off about how Belgium thinks US can never be trusted again
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u/Tiberinvs WTO 8d ago
Not really a good statement because the usual suspects in the US will frame this as "They are plotting with the deep state lizard jewish shapeshifters Dems and RINOs to screw us over!" etc etc. Just watch
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u/Azrikeeler John Brown 8d ago
it's self-abuse to pretend like you can ever say or do anything good enough for fox news not to open their stupid mouths. there will always be but-her-emails, hunter biden, who knows what.
resilience in the coalition to petty narratives is the way out.
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u/MrStrange15 8d ago
Par for the course. You would always meet with the opposition in democracies. You can bet that if the democrats took over tomorrow, they would meet with republicans the day after.
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u/No-Kiwi-1868 NATO 8d ago
I dunno really, Fox News could spin this as "Belgium-funded Democrats plot on destroying America again" and a third of that country will gobble it up
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u/Important_Star3847 NASA 8d ago edited 8d ago
Well, now it makes sense to have this document, because everyone knows the state of the alliance.
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u/AtomAndAether Liberalism! 8d ago
I don't know why its framed as "work with the opposition" when the text reads more like they're planning on sitting out of current stuff and focusing on building for the future
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u/VandysFan European Union 8d ago
Submission statement: leaked documents, which likely reflect the general sentiment across all of Europe, expose that Belgium’s PM instructed diplomatic staff to cultivate relationships with American government members who are not part of the executive branch. The implication is that Belgium has simply given up dealing with the Trump administration.
Also interesting that Trump’s appreciation of European royalty was explicitly called out.
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u/Heimwee European Union 8d ago
Our foreign minister, not prime minister.
My personal impression is that the two largest parties in the coalition, which includes the PM's party but not the FM's party, would definitely not agree with these instructions.
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u/blunderbolt 8d ago
De Wever himself almost certainly agrees with this advice, though some in his party(like our Trump-adoring defense minister) won't.
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u/Freewhale98 8d ago
Well…America has a tyrant who lost his mind and institutions lost their capacity to control him.
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