Trump’s rift with Europe
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. Last week, a lot went down when President Donald Trump went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump escalated his demands for Greenland and then walked back on his threats after announcing a framework of a future deal on Greenland with NATO. But we still don't really have any details on that. This whole situation has caused and sort of added to a lot of conversation outside of the United States. about how the rest of the world should respond to Trump. And it's put the economic relationship between the U.S. and Europe back into the spotlight. We wanted to learn more about how all this news is being received outside the U.S.
So today we're talking with Paola Tama.
What happened during Trump's Davos appearance?
She's a correspondent for the Financial Times who covers the EU economy from Brussels, Belgium. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Hi, Kimberly. Hi. So how have the Europeans been reacting to the news coming out of the United States lately?
How did Trump escalate and then walk back his Greenland threats?
Well, shell-shocked is an often used adjective, but it definitely does fit the situation that we lived in one week ago when President Trump unleashed his threat of tariffs if he didn't get Greenland. And the week just proceeded in a frenzy with European officials trying to make sense of this threat, trying to defuse it. And then eventually taking a big collective sigh of relief on the Wednesday when he announced that he would not use force. And then another one when it emerged that after a meeting with Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte, there was the contours of a deal, which meant that, you know, the tariff threats would be walked back. But that said, even though the initial issue is right now off the table, there is a lot of head scratching going on around Europe on how to deal with the US going forward.
And I think that this threat, which hasn't been the first to levy tariffs on the EU, but it has been the first in the context of a potential territorial annexation of one of its allies, has really awoken Europeans to the fact that Relations with the U.S. are unpredictable. They are potentially untrustworthy as a partner. And what does that mean for Europeans? And how do we deal with that issue going forward? It's still a question that's very much alive.
It feels like this Greenland situation really marked a distinct change in how Europe is choosing to interact with the president. It felt like early on in this second round of his administration, there really was an attempt to kind of just go along to get along, to placate Trump. And then there was a shift here. Is that a fair assessment?
I think so, at least in part. I was covering also the EU-US negotiations on trade last summer when they achieved a very lopsided trade deal, one where the US would get lower tariffs on its exports to the EU, whereas the EU accepted a 15%. So an increase in in the tariffs that its products get levied in the US. And why did we take that deal? Well, because there was a realization that we couldn't have done any better, that in those circumstances, it was the better deal on the table. And in the deep, in the back of the mind of everybody, the fact that the EU needs the US on other fronts too, specifically on security with NATO and with Ukraine. And so at the time, the word of the day was appeasement and trying to get to an agreement.
Whereas what happened this time is, I think, you know, there was really a realization that this time we have to do something and we have to respond differently because, A, Denmark is such a fundamental issue, not because of Greenland per se, but because of the threat of territorial integrity from an ally. And two, we have seen that, you know, we thought we had solved issues, at least on the trade front, with an agreement, but that agreement failed. might be overturned any moment from the US, depending on what the president might want next. And so they tried to give a different impression, a different response this time. There were some pretty strong statements.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–0:52
2
What happened during Trump's Davos appearance?
0:52–1:08
3
How did Trump escalate and then walk back his Greenland threats?
1:08–6:21
4
What has been the European reaction to Trump's threats?
6:21–11:16
5
How are European officials reassessing their relationship with the U.S.?
11:16–24:26