Europe's threat list includes jihadists, Russia -- and Donald Trump
(emphasis exists in the original article)
By Ishaan Tharoor February 2 at 1:00 AM
Nothing illustrates the crisis facing the world order more than a letter circulated this week by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. Tusk's message, addressed to the leaders of the European Union's member states, pointed to the other Donald, describing the Trump administration as one of the potential "external" threats facing Europe.
The "worrying declarations by the new American administration all make our future highly unpredictable," said Tusk, who framed this concern alongside the menace of jihadism and an aggressive Russia. As the specter of Brexit looms over the continent, many leaders are still grappling with Trump's indifference to the European project and other institutions that have guaranteed prosperity and security on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 50 years.
"The Trump administration, like a wrecking ball swinging its way across the Atlantic, pounds into Europes strategic assumptions," wrote the Financial Times in a Wednesday editorial. Trump, it added, "is challenging cardinal tenets of U.S. foreign policy in ways that would have horrified all his predecessors since Harry Truman."
Europeans are asking questions they never quite thought they would have to: Will Washington disrupt the global economy? Will it defend Europe against an expansionist Russia?
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/02/europes-threat-list-includes-jihadists-russia-and-donald-trump/?utm_term=.fd90876f266f