‘Judging Freedom,’ 30 July: EU Capitulates to Trump

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Today’s session with Judge Andrew Napolitano centered on the von der Leyen – Trump agreement in Scotland on a 15%  tariff for European exports to the USA, which was in effect a humiliating defeat for the EU. Bad as that sounds, the far worse point agreed was for the EU to greatly expand its LNG and oil imports from the USA, with the figure 650 billion euros specifically named.  Of course, this obligation will likely never be met, just as similar obligations on China to import US agricultural products at certain target levels never were met. But the principle, if actually applied, will condemn European manufacturing to excessive costs, meaning to uncompetitive export prices and loss of markets abroad.

As I have noted elsewhere, the capitulation on tariffs was clearly motivated by the hopes of von der Leyen and of those European leaders supporting her that this concession will keep open relations with Washington and, in particular, lead to continuation of the common Euro-Atlantic stand on giving Ukraine the financial and flow of military equipment it needs to continue the war with Russia.  What I did not say in the interview but should be mentioned here is that the expectation of further U.S. assistance to Ukraine is delusional.  Trump wants out of the war and there is no way that Europe can so ingratiate itself with him as to change his mind on that cardinal point of U.S. foreign policy.

 Our brief discussion of the Epstein scandal that currently fascinates Washington, of the decision by Britain and France to recognize the Palestine state in September and of likely CIA hand in the anti Zelensky demonstrations that swept Ukraine last week  may also interest viewers.

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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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