The creeping for Trump is disgusting

The Creeping for Trump is disgusting to see

 

 

Niclas Vent

Reporter

This is a commentary text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 18.40

When Europe buries its role in the world, some of our leaders stand silently and scrape their feet.

Others are scolding, loudly and shamelessly.

It is disgusting to see.

Did you see Mark Rutte's text message to Donald Trump?

I can't remember ever reading anything more creeping, submissive and scolding. I'm ashamed just thinking about it.

It wasn't just the content.

Rutte wrote in a tone that had the controls for ingratiation and Trump adaptation turned up to maximum.

This applies to the exaggerations (“something that NO American president has managed to do in decades”), the exaltation of Trump as a person (“it will be your victory”) and even the arbitrarily large letters (“Europe will have to pay HEAVY”).

Some of the content makes one wonder whose mandate the Secretary-General actually believes he is acting on.

The US bombing of Iran, for example, has been singled out as a violation of international law by several allies, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

In Rutte’s world, Trump’s efforts in Iran were only positive – “decisive”, “extraordinary” and “something that no one else dared to do”.

Mark Rutte got the job as Secretary-General to be a “Trump whisperer”, someone who could speak the president’s language and save NATO from collapse.

Was everyone aware that what we were getting was a Trump swindler?

It's not just about the text message.

Here in The Haueg, Rutte has not missed any opportunity to praise Donald Trump's efforts.

When he described Donald Trump's efforts for peace in Ukraine at the NATO Open Forum, he sounded almost lyrical:

- I want to praise Donald Trump for breaking the deadlock, when he came to power and started a dialogue with Vladimir Putin, he said at the summit in The Hague.

- I have always thought that was decisive. There is only one person in the world who could break the deadlock, and that is the president of the United States, because he is the most powerful leader in the world, he controls 25 percent of the world's GDP and the most powerful military power in the world.

So this is about an initiative that has so far not led to any measurable results whatsoever.

 

Rutte and Trump earlier this year. Photo: AP

The problem is bigger than Rutte.

Europe currently appears to be almost irrelevant on the world stage.

• When a long line of European countries demanded a diplomatic solution to the issue of Iran's nuclear program, the United States chose bombs.
• All European demands related to a ceasefire in Ukraine have gone unheeded.
• Israel respectfully ignores the EU's demands to help the civilian population in Gaza.
• When 14 political prisoners were released from Belarus, Europe's last dictatorship, on Saturday, it was not thanks to the Europeans, but because of American mediation.

To a certain extent, the evasion is understandable.

Rutte has a summit to save, and needs a Trump in a good mood.

Europe as a whole cannot afford to anger Donald Trump if it leads to the United States abandoning its defense against Russia.

The armor that Europe needs to stand on its own two feet is still in the future.

But cowardice comes with a price.

Most Europeans want to see our countries as a force for democracy, freedom and a rules-based world order, but it is definitely difficult to listen to someone who either laughs out loud when the bully jokes or else mumbles and folds.

The road to a better world is not easy.

A first step might be to stand for something.