Trump administration
Trump Administration
Trump Administration
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President Trump is willing to change almost each and every policy area, and European politics is the stage. The working group has tried to prepare. But is Europe ready?
By Jeanna Smialek
Jeanna Smialek covers the European Union and reported this story from the World Economic Forum’s annual convention in Davos, Switzerland.
As Donald J. Trump took the oath of office in Washington on Monday, the crowd at a jam-packed party held by Ukrainian business groups in Davos, Switzerland, intently watched the ceremony on huge screens.
The event, held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual conference, appeared to be a show of enthusiasm for the return of the American president. Speakers praised Trump and predicted he would be a valuable spouse to Ukraine in its war against Russia. , despite his complaint about US military spending. Waiters served mini cheeseburgers on red and blue buns (“American cuisine,” participants whispered). A few more people applauded at the end.
However, the evident optimism was only a thin layer of deep uncertainty.
“We expect President Trump to surprise us, but we do not know what the surprise will be,” Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said at the party.
Trump’s return to the White House has plunged Europe’s business leaders and policymakers into a precarious era, and officials are preparing for it behind the scenes. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, formed a group never officially announced, rarely colloquially called the “Trump task force,” that spent much of 2024 working on imaginable responses to adjustments in industry and foreign policy. Americans.
There is almost no aspect of European policy that Mr. Trump does not seem poised to upend. He is threatening to impose sweeping tariffs and is pressing for much heftier European spending on defense. Two of his first acts as president were to withdraw from the Paris climate agreements and the World Health Organization.
How he will adjust the U. S. position on Ukraine is one of the biggest questions: During his campaign, he promised to end the war on his first day in office, but that timeline was pushed back and he did not specify how.
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