Why Europe Is Angered By Donald Trump

The new American President doesn’t seem to be making many friends at the moment as he described NATO as ‘obsolete’, called the EU ‘a vehicle for Germany’ and others would follow the UK in regards to leaving the EU. So it’s not the best start for Mr Trump, despite being true to his words, his radical opinions have seemed to anger the European continent. He’s very open with his views about the world and Europe in particular. One thing that really angered Europe was his suggestion that the terror attacks were linked to the million asylum-seekers who arrived in Europe over the past two years. Look at it this way, two weeks into the Trump presidency and the British parliament has barred America’s commander-in-chief from addressing the House of Commons; and a leading German newspaper has called on all freedom-loving peoples in Europe and Asia to mobilize against the United States primarily focusing on Trump.

It’s crazy to think that Trump is ‘going out of his way’ to alienate other countries. His policy has generated a backlash among the Europeans leaders. Angela Merkel, German politician had a spokesman that explained the Geneva Convention to the president on a phone call addressing the order, while the mayor of London Sadiq Khan argued that the invitation to the president for state visit to Britain should be withdrawn until his Muslim ban is rescinded. Yet, there have been those in the European elites that have favoured Trump- leaders of Europe’s populist right-wing parties: Geert, Wilders, Nigel Farage and others have supported and praised some of Trump’s decisions.

So opposed to these competing views, Trump’s ‘new order’ has certainly created an impact across the entire world, being mostly a negative impact. There have been countless protests in America and significantly more across the European continent. Another reason why Europe is rather angered by Trump is that he appears to be conflating the longstanding opposition to immigration among some U.K voters to increased immigration to its refugee policy. The U.K. pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees last year, far fewer than other major European nations—though the fate of that commitment is unclear.

Trump also said in the interview that he doesn’t care one way or the other whether the EU is a single ‘being’ or several countries. U.S. administrations of both parties have promoted European unity for decades—though there have areas of disagreement.  “Personally, I don’t think it (a stronger EU versus stronger nation states) matters much for the United States,” Trump said. “I never thought it mattered. Look, the EU was formed, partially, to beat the United States on trade, OK? So, I don’t really care whether it’s separate or together, to me it doesn’t matter.”

Those comments, in particular, appear to have rankled in Europe, where support for EU membership is high in most member states, even if there’s resentment toward some EU policies. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: “The best response is European unity.” Speaking in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “We Europeans have our fate in our own hands.” In these ‘troubled’ times, if you’re in Europe, make sure you are applying for an e111 because you never know what is round the corner and with this you can feel at ease with any of your medical attentions.