By threatening to seize Greenland by force, U.S. President Donald Trump has exposed the childlike illusions of his European admirers.
Having spent years cultivating their bromances with him, the continent’s right-wing populists — the United Kingdom’s Nigel Farage, Jordan Bardella in France, Alice Weidel in Germany, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, Robert Fico in Slovakia, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Mateusz Morawiecki in Poland — imagined themselves fellow travelers in a revolt against liberal internationalism. Now their idol and patron has been threatening to swallow whole or in part (if the supposed “deal” he has announced comes about) the sovereign territory of a European ally.
Their response has been silence, stammering deflections or transparent discomfort, revealing the cynicism that always defined their relationship with Trump. They were never junior partners, only disposable playthings.
