‘Judging Freedom,’ 4 March 2025: Trump Outfoxes Europe

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‘Judging Freedom,’ 4 March 2025:   Trump Outfoxes Europe

Today’s session took place during the countdown to Donald Trump’s address to Congress tonight. Rumor has it that he will announce the U.S. withdrawal from NATO.

If he does so, then his sense of theater timing will be proven to be extraordinary.  I say this because withdrawal from NATO, which we may assume was always in his plans, normally would raise rancorous debate on Capitol Hill. However, by a stroke of luck, the Europeans this past weekend, set the stage for such withdrawal by repeating the disastrous mistake of Volodymyr Zelensky during his meeting with Trump on Friday. I have in mind the capital crime of lèse majesté.   You cannot publicly go up against the explicitly stated will of the President of the United States and expect to survive politically.

This is precisely what the 19 European leaders who convened in London at the invitation of Keir Starmer did: they embraced Zelensky warmly, after he had been thrown out of White House; they called for a cease fire that entails European boots on the ground and American back-up support, which Trump very clearly said on Friday will not be forthcoming. They positioned themselves very clearly as the ‘war party’ when Trump has positioned himself as the campaigner for a durable peace here and now.

If Trump does call for withdrawal from NATO, I expect he will get enormous support from those who are incensed at the temerity of the Europeans going up against their President.

Another highlight of this interview is our discussion of Trump the Realist, Trump the Internationalist, even if and when he pulls out of NATO.

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.

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One thought on “‘Judging Freedom,’ 4 March 2025: Trump Outfoxes Europe”

  1. My opinion is that the war against Trumpism which is still raging in the US is now visibly being played out in Europe. On top of this there is a good cop bad cop routine going on.

    lots of rage and crocodile tears in the collective west if Trump is successful.

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