LONDON — The bloc of nations might be a free-riding ally that disproportionately disrupts U.S. trade access, but President Trump is wrong to describe the European Union as a “foe.”
Trump did so on Sunday when he sat down with CBS’s “Face the Nation” prior to leaving Scotland to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. And there is no doubt that Trump has made the Russian leader smile with his comment that “the European Union is a foe.”
First, let’s consider the quote’s context as found in the CBS transcript below.
BREAKING: President Trump in new @CBSNews interview calls the European Union a “foe” of the United States. The president also said Russia is a “foe in certain respects” and China “is a foe economically.”
Coming up on @FaceTheNation: pic.twitter.com/s4mRpV8ok2— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 15, 2018
While that context makes clear Trump was focused on trade issues, the weight of “foe” in diplomatic discourse means the context offers little excuse for its utterance. Although Trump is right to challenge those EU nations that freeload of U.S. defense spending (albeit not all EU states are freeloaders), and employ market barriers to entry, all told the E.U. is clearly an important U.S. ally. The reality of that alliance is measured by the EU’s democratic alignment with U.S.-led structures like NATO, but also with U.S. foreign policy priorities on democracy promotion, human rights, rule-of-law based economic development, and scientific and academic collaboration. And while the relationship demands fairer re-balancing, we must not forget its tangible importance. For one, E.U. states imported more than $283 billion of U.S. goods and services in 2017.
In this real context, describing the EU as a “foe” is at best delusional and at worse pernicious.
But what makes the president’s remarks even more concerning is that he associated them with lesser criticism towards two true American foes. Describing China as “a foe economically” and Russia as a “foe in certain respects,” Trump suggested they and the EU are all somehow equal complications. Some might even argue that by picking out the EU first, Trump suggested it is more of a foe than China and Russia. And that is simply insane.
After all, both China and Russia are engaged in wide-ranging and hyperaggressive campaigns to dilute the American-led international order and global democratic norms. Beijing’s objective is a global feudal empire in which all other nations bow to Chinese political interests in return for market access and investment. In Moscow’s case, the end is a geopolitical hegemony served by a mercantilism interwoven with political influence. But both interests are utterly at odds with U.S. order and global stability.
Put simply, China and Russia are clear American foes. The EU is not.
More concerning, Trump comments like this one make it that much harder for the most strategically minded and historically educated officials in his administration to do their jobs. That includes Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, chief of staff John Kelly, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who, whatever their policy advice and loyalty to Trump, recognize that America’s alliances must be maintained. They know that Trump’s showdowns over trade, diplomacy and defense commitments are expected and even salutary. But they also know that describing allies as foes is a step way too far. It dilutes the trust of foreign government establishments in a tangible way that very few Trump words can do. “If Trump thinks we are enemies, not just problems,” foreign allies might now ask, “surely we should create barriers and distance between him.”
And by nature of Trump’s office, the effective “him” is actually America.
Trump must think more carefully about what he says. He has the democratic authority to say whatever he wishes, but he also has a duty to his office. A duty of ensuring close allies remain just that rather than graduating supplicants to those who disregard everything America stands for and seeks.
