Professor: Europe should wait out Trump presidency

AlArabiya English

Europe should play the long game and just wait out Trump's presidency instead of discarding the US as a partner, Political Science and International Affairs Professor William Lawrence says. #Trump

Transcript

00:00Just on the signal leak story that you mentioned there, a very interesting point you made.

00:06But I'm just wondering, after we saw what was written in there about Europe, can Europe

00:13trust America as a really strong ally still?

00:17No.

00:18The vast bulk of the foreign policy establishment, the civilian personnel at the State Department

00:25and the Pentagon that they're trying to force out, the think tanks, the foreign policy establishment,

00:31they haven't changed at all on Europe.

00:33But there is this sort of aspect of the conservative right in the US, some of it attached to the

00:39MAGA movement and all of it backing Trump, that would like to see the US get more from

00:45the world while giving less to the world.

00:48And it's sort of an untenable calculation, but America first is not always logical.

00:52In some ways, it's more emotional than logical and ideological more than logical.

00:58But in the end, I think the US, as long as it remains a democracy and elections happen,

01:04which there's a risk there, it'll come back around.

01:07So I think Europeans are smart to play the long game, not to antagonize Trump the way

01:11Zelensky doesn't antagonize Trump, keep their criticism private, try to get the Americans

01:16to do the right thing as much as possible in a very negative situation, and then wait

01:20out the Trump administration.

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