Trump has made clear where his sympathies lie. His first two international visitors to the White House have been Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Narendra Modi of India. Both are prime ministers of their countries. Both are from the far right.
Now, Trump is planning to do a deal over Ukraine with Putin that ignores the interests of that country or Europe. That a deal to end the war in Ukraine might be required is beside the point. The point is that Trump is ignoring all the parties involved, bar Putin, with whom he is carving out a deal. And Putin is on the decided far right.
My point is a simple one. You can tell a person by the company they keep. Trump is making it very clear whose company he wishes to keep. The message he is sending out as a result is not good. Unless you are on the far right, he really is not interested in knowing you.
Good luck to Canada, Mexico, Panama, Denmark and the EU in that case. Trump is really not interested in what you think.
More fool Starmer for thinking he might be an exception.
Trump only wants to deal with people who, as he is, are indifferent to democracy and accommodating opposition. The world is becoming a very threatening place. The Age of Aggression is here, and Trump is intent on its staying.
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We can’t expect much from governments – least of all from Starmer – so what can we do? We should, of course, continue to lobby our own governments, but I think the only really effective action is likely to be boycotting US big business.
Both Starbucks and McDonalds have admitted that the Palestinian BDS boycott is working – in some countries, eg, Malaysia, turning tens-of-millions of profit into equally big losses, closing branches, lowering stock values, etc, etc…
A mass movement around the world to stop buying US products, or using US brands, will be noticed in corporate headquarters, where probably the only lobby with some leverage on Trump is likely to start trying to restrain him.
Agreed
Not that I will have problems avoiding McDonalds and Starbucks. But I have withdrawn from Twitter.
Also Amazon??
Trump sees China as the main enemy. In this battle, Israel and India will be the main allies and not Europe. Trump is very transactional and Europe can offer him very little regards to China. A Russia that can do anything they like is good in this world because that will keep China on their toes. And that is bad for anybody in Europe or on the border of Europe.
I find it hard to agree on Russia
Tesla Sales are falling
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/new-car-market/2025-02/tesla-sales-fall-by-up-to-66-in-europe-and-uk/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2012%20February%202025&utm_content=Newsletter%2012%20February%202025+CID_1ab9f36770b402b25adcf71b89d10c63&utm_source=campaign%20monitor&utm_term=The%20beginning%20of%202025%20has%20seen%20a%20dramatic%20fall%20in%20Tesla%20sales%20Could%20it%20be%20the%20influence%20of%20Musks%20new%20role%20in%20global%20politics%20or%20it%20could%20be%20that%20rivals%20are%20starting%20to%20make%20better%20EVs
By 65% in Europe
Very good
I wonder if Starmer knew a deal with Putin was coming, and he pledged unwavering support for Ukraine knowing he wouldn’t have to for much longer.
Having been exposed to Simplicus the Thinker recently I have delved into his site and exposed myself to the horror of the Ukrainian front line I can only agree.
What with Hegseth (ugly name; ugly man, ugly message) addressing NATO in the way that he did, it seems that Europe is to be cast adrift by the U.S. The long term consequences maybe are that Russia will creep back and retake its iron curtain over time – I mean, after Ukraine why not the Czech, Polish lands – hey – even former East Germany? The history of Europe is a bloody one; any visitor is walking on soil soaked with blood. History is on the cusp of coming back but this time, even more deadly.
Some might think that I’m being over the top, but go and watch the celebratory drone footage of Ukrainians being killed and read the comments that treat the brutality so casually, of torn bodies being called ‘faggots’ and understand that it is all sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church.
And to think – the people who created all this, Americans or European rejects who found sanctuary there whose genealogy goes all the way back to the U.S. Confederacy who believed in slavery and sovereignty through outright ownership and are now what we call ‘Neo-liberals’ , who have helped make with their twisted ideas a complete mess of Russia in the post-Soviet period and are responsible for Putin and who are just going to wash their hands of it all and leave us to deal with the mess, when Europe cannot even sort itself out!!
Well, whatever happens, they’re not sending my kids to the front line like the Ukrainians are mobilising their younger people. The politicians on this side of the fence had better start to get their house in order.
Russia has its own limits – they are not happy with the number of war dead they have got to gain little.
But, we have to decide, how far?
The former Russian Baltic states are at risk.
The Baltic states have behaved like attack dogs … of the chihuahua size. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, they managed internal affairs so adeptly that their main export commodity is … well, citizens.
In Neutrality Studies Youtube channel I watched an interview with a Latvian journalist. Somehow, I was left with the impression that they do not pose any risk worth losing sleep about.
PS. Immeasurably grateful for your video series on MMT.
The risk is to them…
Good post.
” the people who created all this, Americans or European rejects” – quite. I can recommend “The English” for a view of the evil that, in this case, – the English did.
Europe spawned these monsters and has allowed itself to be groomed by a combo of the USA on the one hand and Russians on the other.
We can be better than this. But only if we act together. Europeans have much in common – whilst a diversity of languages delivers a diversity of thought.
United, Europe will stand but Russia and the USA would like to see it divided or at the very least arguing/fighting with itself. These are the new (& old) realities.
& no, I’m not looking at the sclerotic European Commission to take the lead. I don’t know what form of org could provide structure – but I have a sense that the EU has passed its sell-by-date at least in terms of both timely action and moral direction.
We have to reiterate this point ad nauseam: the EU as we know it is simply a trading bloc, it has no geo-political power.
Leaders of EU nations coming together and issuing joint statements is no more than that: supranational cooperation, not a pact nor a treaty.
We will need to beef up the EU’s mandate even before Trump cuts us adrift, but right now we need to look to Paris, Berlin, Rome, Warsaw etc and not to Brussels.
UK needs to pick a side and it’s not the US. We need to stand with the EU. We are an easier target for Putin than the US. Putin has greatly benefited from the immense damage caused by Brexit. The US has essentially withdrawn as our ally. We are ever closer to pre world war 2 conditions.
I read somewhere that almost 70% of US overseas investments are in the UK. Which way do you think the UK government will jump? It was American money behind Brexit after all.
That is most definitely not true.
While (surprisingly) the UK appears to be the biggest recipient of US direct overseas investment, the value is c.$1 trillion, compared to a total of $6.7trillion. So nothing like 70%…
https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/direct-investment-country-and-industry-2023
Thanks
Re American money and Brexit . Are not Tufton Street largely funded by Americans. Wasn’t the Heritage Foundation all quite influential in Brexit thinking?
They do not disclose their funding.
“Unless you are on the far right, he really is not interested in knowing you.”
With the latest announcements this week – banning refugees from ever gaining citizenship, ‘celebrating’ deportations, and no doubt even greater depths (as instructed by McSweeney) over the next few weeks – I think Starmer will fit right in.
Agreed
Regarding Putler (Putin+Hitler) – he is a monster out of the same stable as Pol-Pot, Mao, Stalin etc. A monster, with no redeeming qualities apart from that like all humans he will be dead at some point.
I host a Ukrainian family. Their view (& by extension that of many Ukrainians) is that Russia is too big. It needs to be broken up. Furthermore, although European Russians are scattered through the area east of the Urals, the indigenous peoples are despised by European Russians and, at the moment, disproportionately used as cannon-fodder. They are not happy people. This needs to be leveraged.
The Russia-Ukraine war has to be a coming of age for Europe. Dump the Americans, they have never ever been “allies” merely exploiters of European weakness, & sort out Russia – permanently. This means substantive rearming. The Euros have the tech and existing weapon systems are as good (if not better) and often cheaper than US equipment. Within Europe, there is a diversity of thought which is Europe’s key strength – again this needs to be leveraged. Finally, there are significant EU member states which have been free-riding on defense. As was observed; the level of defense spending is a function of a country’s distance from Moscow. Spanish spending is derisory, ditto Portugal etc.
Meanwhile, lurking in the east is America’s bete noir: China. If they go head to head, Russia will be all alone (although I sense that Trumps rapprochement with Putler is a way of causing China to look over its shoulder).
All that said, I am deeply pessimistic that the Euros can get their act together. As for Starmer& co, weak, weak, weak,weak,…….
I like your post Mike – the prospect of Putin unifying Europe and possibly throwing the far right off kilter is maybe the only silver lining considering the prospect of the U.S. rolling back on its traditional post war role.
As for Russia, if Simplicus is to be believed, it is drones doing the killing now, and very good they are at it too, so the issue of Russian death tolls might not figure so highly. It also seems that Russia has effectively managed to jam Ukrainian drones so the fight is hardly fair anymore – I’ve seen pictures of knocked out Challenger/Leopard and Abrams tanks/Bradleys reduced to scrap. Added to that, members of the Ukrainian armed forces look to me to be on the verge of mutiny because they feel that their commanders have no idea what they are doing. Russia has responded and is playing a longer, more savvy game that could enable it to extend itself with a long term revenge plan on the West. Far-fetched? Not really. Who mourns drones?
I tell you, looking into that stuff is dark gruesome world.
As Colonel Smither’s colleague Aurelien has noted in a recent essay, the way we play at war now has changed considerably and the question is this: is the West ready for that? I doubt it. Putin is an ideological nut case as well as a gangster. We can only hope that one day, his Russia dies with him. But all I see is a martial society at the moment that just might live on and take back what it has lost.
And I want to be wrong.
Meanwhile, the Yankee sabre rattling towards China goes on based on the U.S. taking an exception to a country that will not allow it to dominate it. The fact that there is also a string racist tradition in this enmity must not be overlooked, given the far right nature of the U.S. government.
It’s not just the indigenous people of Siberia the Russians look down on. A contact of mine worked in Belarus for a number of years and the Russians there expect first chance of promotion or higher pay just because they are Russian.
Belorussian people who have a flag (white over dark red over white) can be beaten or even sent to prison for possessing it.
It is one reason the Ukrainians have fought so hard. Yet I see Youtube videos of Jeffrey Sachs telling us the war is all the fault of the West or even the US for advancing Nato eastwards. The boundaries of the USSR were several hundred miles west of Russia’s. And the new members of NATO wanted membership from the early 1990s according to the Lib Dem former MP William Wallace.
And Mike Parr, I agree Europe does need a joint defence capability.
Agreed Mike, things are now very bleak and Europe now has to get it’s act together re defence which it could do if the political will/competence is there. I don’t regard the average Russian as particularly warlike, or Russia actually as being good at fighting wars. Unfortunately they are run by a tyrant who couldn’t care less about the losses his own forces suffer as long as they grind out a victory against the determined Ukrainians who, unfortunately, have not got the backing from the west they should have got in the last three years.
The real point is whether European politicians are up to the task. …
See this excellent piece from Christina Pagel today on the playbook that’s being followed, and what we should be doing about it: https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/so-this-is-how-liberty-dies-making
Very good….
Second part of the article details Curtis G. Yarvin a far-right libertarian close to the Trumpists /tech oligarchs who believes that democracy should be ended because true freedom is not sustainable without authoritarianism. He advocates for a neo-monarchical form of government run by an absolute leader, a unitary chief executive, supported by a small council of wealthy technocrats which together will control every aspect of domestic, foreign, and economic policy.
https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-of-the-notion-that-Elon-Musk-is-actually-acting-as-the-president-now-and-manipulating-Trump
see also
[1] https://benburgis.substack.com/p/curtis-yarvins-nonsense-in-the-new
[2] Transcript of EP 160 – Curtis Yarvin on Monarchy in the U.S.A. – The Jim Rutt Show
https://jimruttshow.blubrry.net/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-ep-160-curtis-yarvin-on-monarchy-in-the-u-s-a/
[3] He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration
https://jimruttshow.blubrry.net/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-ep-160-curtis-yarvin-on-monarchy-in-the-u-s-a/
[4] curtis-yarvin-interview New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/magazine/curtis-yarvin-interview.html
[5] JD Vance and the rise of the ‘New Right’ https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/08/01/vance-trump-new-right-republican-election
Thanks