‘Orchestrated grovel': critics react to Europe's attempts to tame Donald Trump
History may record this week as the one in which Donald Trump came to Europe to discuss defence spending.
Diplomats may remember it as the week in which the art of obsequiousness reached new highs and the sycophants plunged new lows.
All in the name of taming the president. It seems to have worked.
After Trump landed to Washington from this week's Nato summit in The Hague, the White House posted a video that made clear how his team felt the trip had gone.
The summit had concluded on Wednesday with a joint press conference in which Nato's secretary general, Mark Rutte, after showering the US president with compliments over Iran, bizarrely referred to him as 'daddy'.
Rutte was now being widely derided for the summit's 'orchestrated grovel' and attempting to row back on his choice of language. In Washington, however, Team Trump were enjoying themselves.
'Daddy's home!' trilled the video, which mixed clips of Trump's handshakes with world leaders with footage of crowds awaiting his motorcade, soundtracked by a 2010 song by Usher: 'And I know you've been waiting for this loving all day …'
The tone of Rutte's public bootlicking had been muted compared with the text messages he had sent to 'dear Donald' ahead of the summit – 'Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary … you will achieve something NO president in decades could get done' – and which the president had immediately leaked. 'I think he likes me,' smirked Trump later, while his cabinet giggled behind him.
Ass-kissing, arse-licking, brown-nosing, sucking up – there is a reason metaphors for obsequiousness so often involve bodily fluids and the backside, because the act of sycophancy demeans both the arselicker and the arselickee.
What is more cringeworthy, after all – the clips of Trump's cabinet members taking turns to parrot praise of his leadership and vision, or the fact that his fragile ego demands lavish compliments before he can get down to work?
No doubt all the president's yes-men believe that lavishing him with praise can lead to lavish rewards.
Take former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who in 2020 presented him with a 'bookshelf-sized' bronze model of Mount Rushmore, portraying Trump's face next to those of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Noem is now the secretary of homeland security. Stephen Miller, who called Trump 'the most stylish president in our lifetime', is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
To some observers, this is just how Trump works, at home and abroad, and world leaders like Rutte who engage in flattery and 'strategic self-emasculation' are just being smart. 'A useful way to think about President Trump and his team is not in terms of a conventional American administration, but rather as a court,' says Sam Edwards, reader in modern political history at Loughborough University. Understood in those terms, he argues, performative upsucking is all.
Sign up to Headlines Europe
A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day
after newsletter promotion
He points to Keir Starmer's first visit to Trump's Oval Office, when the UK prime minister theatrically brandished a letter from King Charles inviting Trump to a second state visit, saying, 'This is really special, this is unprecedented.'
In this sense, Edwards argues, Rutte's conduct 'looks like debasement, like he's conducted himself with weakness,' says Edwards. 'But in the longer term, he gets the Nato partners to sign up to 5% expenditure on defence, which is something he wants as much as Trump wants. I guess that's the strategic calculation that Rutte has made. I might come in for criticism, but further down the line, do I get what I want? Yes.'
That view is not universal, however. 'Mr Rutte, he's trying to embarrass you, sir,' Trump's former director of communications Anthony Scaramucci said earlier this week. 'He's literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you.'
David H Dunn, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, agrees that licking Trump's boots doesn't earn his favour but his disdain. His flattering cabinet were selected not because the president admires them, says Dunn, but because their obsequiousness shows their weakness.
He thinks Rutte, too, has miscalculated. 'There is a lot of evidence from the first term that Trump doesn't necessarily respond to flattery,' Dunn says.
'It sends a signal that this is not an alliance of equals. This is not the America of old, whereby there was a coming together of countries of shared values and shared interests. What it looks like is fealty to the king.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Senate bill hastens end of wind, solar tax credits and imposes new tax
WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - The latest version of the Senate's massive budget bill that the Senate is racing through for a vote as soon as Saturday deals a fatal blow to the use of tax credits in place since 2005 to spur more wind and solar energy and would set a new tax on those projects for the first time, renewable energy proponents said on Saturday. Despite hopes earlier in the week that the Senate would rework the budget megabill's language about the future use of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to extend their use and make them more usable, the new version of the bill introduced by Senate leadership overnight will effectively repeal the incentives for solar and wind immediately. Instead, it imposes a new tax on wind and solar projects completed after Dec. 31, 2027 if they cannot prove they have not used any Chinese components, while offering a new tax break for coal production. It also accelerates the phase-out of clean energy manufacturing tax credits that have attracted billions in investments throughout the US, especially in Republican states. The clean energy industry and environmental groups decried the last-minute changes to the bill, saying that it will raise household energy costs and deprive the US of new, necessary and fast electricity capacity at a time of massive power demand amid a rush of construction of power-hungry data centers to power AI development. Trump's former advisor and head of DOGE Elon Musk blasted the bill on his social media platform X on Saturday, warning that the bill will "destroy millions of jobs in America" and cause "strategic harm." "It is utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future," he said. Energy security organization SAFE said in a statement that the bill, as written, would give an advantage to China, which dominates the clean energy and electric vehicle industries and is racing to outpace the US in AI development by taking away financing for energy storage, mineral processing and power projects. "Where the original Senate version was a recipe for energy stagnation, this is outright energy surrender—all but guaranteeing Chinese dominance of critical minerals, industrial supply chains, and AI development," said Avery Ash, head of government affairs for SAFE. Green energy opponents praised the bill for ending support for renewable energy. Trump on Friday evening called for the end of the credits and said they no longer need support. 'If, as supporters of the IRA are complaining, repealing these subsidies will 'kill' their industry, then maybe it shouldn't exist in the first place," said Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Trump slams Israel's prosecutors over Netanyahu corruption trial
June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized Israel's prosecutors over an ongoing corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was interfering with his ability to conduct talks with both Hamas and Iran. In a post on Truth Social, Trump also suggested that given the billions of dollars worth of military aid Washington was providing to Israel, it was not going to "stand for this."
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Green firebrand challenges Corbynites: Join me in the radical left
On June 29, 2016, Jeremy Corbyn appeared at a central London rally and made an attempt to move on from the Brexit referendum held the previous week. The Labour leader was instead heckled by a 33-year-old hypnotherapist actor who, unbeknown to the left-wing activists present, had just launched his political career as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats. 'What about Europe, Jeremy!' Zack Polanski jeered. 'Where were you when we needed you?' Corbyn, brow furrowed, appeared speechless, leaving his supporters to hiss and drown out the noise. Today, Polanski is neither an unknown on the left nor a Lib Dem. The tiggerish London Assembly member is running to become leader of the Green Party, of which he is already deputy and whose politics over the past decade have tracked him in moving steadily leftwards. He is still generating headlines and posing complicated questions of Corbyn and the Corbynites. The surprising dynamic is that Polanski — a gay vegan Jew who long ago traded his native Salford for north London — is now doing so in the spirit of comradeship. Addressing the question of his transformation, he invokes Corbyn's hero, Tony Benn: he is interested in where people are going, he says, not where they are from. As such, Polanski has spent recent weeks positioning himself as the radical socialist and pro-Palestine — for which read Corbynite — candidate for the leadership not only of the Greens but of the British left in its entirety. The size and political complexion of the Greens' grassroots membership today is poorly understood (last year it was estimated to number about 57,000, albeit it is thought to have grown since) but his 'eco-populist' vision has generated more noise than his two rivals, MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, who are running on a joint ticket. In the event that he wins the contest, the results of which will be announced at the start of September after a summer of campaigning, he wants the independent MP for Islington North in the tent. Speaking from the Glastonbury festival, where he is busy canvassing, and where Corbyn appeared on the Pyramid Stage at his peak in 2017, Polanski said: 'Anyone who aligns with our values in the Green Party is very welcome to join the party, and so I'd love to see progressive left-wing MPs in the party.' Does that include Corbyn? What of his parliamentary protégés, including those in the Socialist Campaign Group, the left-wing faction of Labour MPs? He confirms: 'Anyone who aligns — and I believe that Zarah [Sultana, the firebrand MP for Coventry South] and Jeremy do align with where the Green Party are — that's a decision for them.' He rattles off a list of socialist positions he would seek to enact: 'protecting the NHS'; 'building social homes'; a 'wealth tax'; and stopping the 'genocide in Gaza'. The reason such pronouncements are causing much debate, and a degree of discomfort, on the left is that it has spent the almost two years since October 7 discussing the future of progressive politics — but failing to identify a clear solution or leader before the next election. Polanski, as one Corbynite puts it, is threatening to 'eat [our] lunch'. Since last year, Reform UK has taken centre stage as the main opposition to Sir Keir Starmer and the established order in Westminster. Yet the Greens won four seats, their most so far and one fewer than Reform, secured two million votes, and came second in 40 seats. Elsewhere, disgruntled socialists and Muslim voters delivered five independent MPs, Corbyn among them. The difference is that Nigel Farage has long personified the anti-immigrant, anti-woke sentiment; is a dominant figure within Reform who has vanquished all internal allies; and has singular communications skills. The radical left has no such person. It has a more complicated relationship with hierarchy in the first instance. It is also less of the view that parliament is the only place where proper politics can be done, especially on the issue of Gaza. Parliamentary chicanery has had far less impact, and visibility, than weekly marches up and down the country, attacks on allegedly pro-Israel businesses and the recent infiltration of RAF Brize Norton. Polanski is adamant that opposition to Israel's actions in Gaza is not limited to the party's traditional urban base — in cities like Brighton and Bristol — nor the British Muslim community. He says of the Red Wall areas where Greens have performed surprisingly well — among them South Tyneside council, where they are the second largest party now: 'In fact, I think in those seats, people are equally concerned with the genocide in Gaza, and people are really affected by inequality.' The Greens — who were the first party in England and Wales to call the Jewish state an 'apartheid' and the first to say it was committing 'genocide' — has at times faced criticism for its track record on expelling antisemitic councillors, but also its focus on the Middle East. Its current leader hand-delivered a petition to her local council asking the mayor to write to the foreign secretary to demand a ceasefire, and prior to the last election circulated leaflets featuring the Palestine flag and images of rubble. Polanski is unapologetic about that. 'I think fundamentally, there's a genocide in Gaza. And actually, the Palestinian people are the story here,' he says. 'And I think often we can all get distracted by talking about groups and actions. And actually, I'd much rather focus on stopping the war, working for a ceasefire, and ending the occupation of Israel.' Adding to the complexity is the fact that many of the left's leading lights — such as Sultana — are still part of Labour, even if she is currently suspended. And others still suffer from what their nemesis, Lord Mandelson, has called 'long Corbyn': the trauma of his suspension from Labour, his repudiation at the ballot box in 2019 and the allegations of antisemitism. Still, leading figures on the left are increasingly of the view that something needs to be done to capitalise on the political moment. Gaza remains a galvanising force — and anti-Labour sentiment is not going away, either on the activist left or in the Muslim community. Support for Labour among committed progressives has fallen from 67 per cent in 2019 to 49 per cent at last year's election, and down to 39 per cent last month. Over the past week, three Greens have won council by-elections triggered by defections or resignations from Labour — including most recently its first in Greenwich. Current polling suggests that — even without a Corbynite tilt — the party would win ultra-safe Labour seats such as Huddersfield. Meanwhile, Luke Tryl, of the pollster More in Common, points to the fact that, in local elections in May, in seats where more than 30 per cent of voters were Muslim, half voted for independent candidates. Within a political tradition known for its splittism, there is unanimity within the left only about the fact such feeling demands one of three things: a new party, a parliamentary grouping or a national movement. To that, Polanski's rejoinder is simple: all three already exist in the form of the Greens. In the event he wins, he says, he intends to depart from the party's traditional identity — as a 'single-issue party' of polar bears and saving the countryside — and pivot towards full-fat leftism. He explains: 'So it's up to anyone what they want to do in terms of starting new things. But actually, I'd encourage anyone right now, whether they're a member of another party, or indeed, an MP from another party, if they align with our values, to join with the Greens.' While his party has a quixotic structure that requires leadership elections every two years and involves the grassroots in policymaking, Polanski has been unusually prepared to speak the usual language of conventional politics. He says the party needs to be less timid and to 'learn' from Farage, whose communications skills, and clarity of vision, have made him favourite to be the next prime minister. And despite the queasiness on the left about the role of parliament, Polanski has resolved, as Farage did, that all roads to power run through Westminster. He says: 'I actually have a constituency in mind, and I want to be one of the first group of new London MPs, or first group of London Green MPs.' • Baroness Jones: You're never too old to be arrested as a Green The question then — beyond the outcome of the race — is whether or not the rest of the left has a rival plan. After a More in Common poll suggested a party led by Corbyn could win 10 per cent of the vote, Andrew Murray, his former aide, last week revealed in an eyebrow-raising account in the socialist daily Morning Star two options had long been under consideration. One was Collective, a new national party founded by Karie Murphy, Corbyn's former chief of staff, whose central idea is to install him as interim leader. The other, which is nameless, seeks to create a looser parliamentary grouping of pro-Gaza MPs, possibly with Corbyn or Sultana as figureheads. Murray added that those two tendencies had now combined, indicating a new organisation could be launched imminently. For the Greens, or any new party, there is a final question. Even if the left found a way to unite, what is the best it could achieve at a general election in 2029? The idea of a progressive alternative to Starmer has acquired momentum precisely because of his rightward shift and his determination instead to court Reform votes. Yet if he continues to fall in the polls, would liberal and left voters not support him in order to avoid opening the door to Farage? More in Common says that most Green (57 per cent) and Lib Dem (51 per cent) voters would vote tactically to keep out Reform. For now, it appears that, whatever its configuration, in Westminster at least, the left is likely to remain on the periphery.
