Europe’s 'appeasement' strategy with Trump has failed. So what comes next?
CBC
Looking typically earnest, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped up to the podium on Monday morning and made a compelling case for respectful, deliberate diplomatic engagement with Donald Trump over the Greenland crisis, warning the U.K. has too much at stake economically and militarily to be driven by emotion.
"The right way to approach a discussion of an issue this serious is calm discussion between allies," he said.
Even Starmer's adversaries in Britain's right-wing populist parties had to agree his cool-headed response — which involved praising the U.S.'s historic leadership role while taking issue with the president's coercion — was the right way to go.
Then, within hours, it all blew up in Starmer's face.
In a social media post overnight on Tuesday, Trump called Starmer's unrelated decision to relinquish Diego Garcia, a U.K.-controlled island in the Indian Ocean that's part of the Chagos Islands, "an act of great stupidity."
"Shockingly, our ‘brilliant' NATO ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US military base to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER," Trump wrote.
Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. can't trust weak allies when it comes to protecting its security interests, implicitly linking the Chagos Islands decision to his pressing need to acquire Greenland.
Never mind that just a few months ago, Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the British government's return of Diego Garcia to Mauritius — in exchange for a long-term lease for the military base there — "a monumental achievement."
Also never mind that Trump's own people were involved in negotiating that deal.
Trump's desire to make Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, part of the United States has grown into an obsession that threatens the NATO alliance and the entire postwar order.
Yet despite the fact that Prime Minister Starmer rolled out multiple red carpets for Trump on a recent state visit to Britain hosted by King Charles and has resorted to all kinds of diplomatic niceties to try to achieve favourable trade outcomes for the U.K., the U.S. president showed no restraint in deliberately humiliating Starmer when it suited him.
"It's time for the government to stand up to Trump; appeasing a bully never works," Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey posted on social media Tuesday.
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California who aspires to be the next Democratic presidential nominee, went even further on Tuesday while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He urged European leaders to "grow a backbone," suggesting Europe got what it deserved by trying to play nice with a president who is inherently unreasonable.
"I can't take this complicity," said Newsom. "Get off your knees and grow a spine."
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