, Columnist
Europe Is Becoming an Afterthought for the World
The president and his foreign policy team heaped disdain on US allies, and their criticisms were largely valid.
Pete Hegseth didn’t make any friends in Europe.
Photographer: Omar Havana/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
Sometimes a fight reflects badly on everyone. Consider the Meltdown in Munich — the cluster of transatlantic meetings around the Munich Security Conference over the weekend.
President Donald Trump’s administration used the occasion — as well as yesterday’s US-Russia discussions in Saudi Arabia — to make clear that it has little respect for its longtime allies and little desire to lead that strategic community. Europe, for its part, showed that it is slouching toward strategic irrelevance in a world ruled by Washington, Moscow and Beijing.