Having come out in almost unanimous revulsion when Trump was elected as US President, the EU now finds itself potentially on the receiving end of the US Presidents’ hard-line approach to Russia.
Last autumn the EU, like much of the political elite across Europe, went into meltdown over Donald Trump’s election success;
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Verhofstadt: Donald Trump poses profound threat to EU
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one senior member even said President Trump would not be welcome in Europe
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electing Trump, “today is a sad day; A sad day for the entire world
In the mean time, Trump has united both US houses in looking to pass legislation to enable them to fine companies that are seen to be aiding Russia’s oil and gas expansion plans – some might think that the EU would welcome this, as they have also attempted to sanction Russia over its involvement in Crimea.
However, these new US rules are likely to hit a number of European companies including several German engineering firms.
So now the EU is faced with having to ask President Trump to make exceptions for EU businesses – something that would have been considerably easier had they taken the diplomatic decision to acknowledge that Trump was democratically selected by his Party to be their presidential candidate and, more importantly, democratically elected by the people of the United States of America to be their president. But then democracy has never been the EUs strong point.
