„Wir müssen uns einfach um ihn kümmern“

McKay Coppins: “‘On the record? We’re as calm as calm can be,’ a European official assured me last week when I called him to ask what he thought about the reelection of Donald Trump.

“His answer surprised me. I’d first met the official earlier this year when I was reporting on European allies’ view of the U.S. presidential election. Back then, almost every leader and diplomat I interviewed expressed dread at the prospect of Trump’s return to power; this same official had described the stakes as ‘existential’ for his country. The reasons for the anxiety were obvious: Russia was waging war on NATO’s doorstep, and America, the alliance’s most powerful member by far, appeared to be on the verge of reelecting a president who had, among other things, said he’d encourage Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to NATO countries he considers freeloaders. Yet now, the official on the other end of the line was talking optimistically about the ‘transatlantic cooperation’ his government looked forward to fostering with its partners in Washington, and ‘working toward strong relationships with the new administration.’

“‘We approach the next Trump presidency with calm and focus, not wobbling and panic,’ he confidently declared.

“Then he asked if he could speak anonymously. I agreed. ‘Obviously,’ he said, ‘a million things could go wrong.’

“Political leaders and diplomats across Europe are clear-eyed about the threat that the next president will pose—and yet they can do very little about it. ‘The overall level of anxiousness is fairly high,’ the official told me. ‘People are expecting turbulence.’ America’s allies now know that they can’t simply ride out a Trump term and wait for a snap back to normalcy. So far this century, Americans have elected George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Trump again. ‘Predictability is gone,’ he said. ‘The pendulum swings from one extreme to the other.’

“In the short term, sources told me, the plan is to cozy up to Trump and those close to him and hope for the best. In the long term, a growing consensus has emerged that Europe will need to prepare for a world in which it no longer counts on America for protection.”

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