The EU’s performance of obedience for the US president will haunt future generations

American politics has always been part performance, part power play. Domestic and foreign policy alike are wrapped in spectacle, but the drama often conceals deeper realities. This week’s meeting between Donald Trump and Western Europe’s leading politicians in Washington was a vivid example. What looked like theatre – leaders lined up in the Oval Office, each playing their role – carried consequences of genuine strategic weight.

The real subject of the summit was not Ukraine. Attempts to resolve that conflict continue, but its outcome will be determined far from Brussels, Paris, or Berlin. The central lesson of Washington was the EU’s dependence – and its public acceptance of subordination to American leadership.

The White House gathering laid bare the infantilization of Western Europe. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is said to have previously described Trump as “Daddy,” and the metaphor has stuck. The Europeans behaved as children trying not to provoke a temper: flattering, nodding, adapting themselves to his moods. There were even reports of EU and British officials advising Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on how to thank the American president, what words to use, even what clothes to wear.

Absurd? Perhaps. But this is the political reality of the West today: the EU no longer behaves as a political entity with its own agency. Its leaders perform before Trump in hopes of appeasement.

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The context has shifted

To be fair, Washington has never shown great delicacy in dealing with its allies. From De Gaulle to Schroeder, European leaders have often found their views brushed aside by American presidents. But the context is new. Facing unprecedented competition with China and with its ability to skim rents from globalization fading, and under pressure from shifting energy and trade patterns, Washington no longer feels compelled to show even symbolic respect for Western Europe.

The only alternative for the US would be full-scale self-isolation – a path floated in the last election but one for which Americans remain unprepared. On the contrary, despite its weakness, Europe now represents Washington’s last major platform for maintaining global influence. In the Middle East, even monarchies traditionally dependent on American defense are asserting independence. Across Asia, only Japan and South Korea remain fully loyal, though even they quietly maintain contact with Moscow.

Thus, the Americans must finish what previous administrations began: breaking Western Europe completely to their will. Trump, with his showmanship, has simply made the process more theatrical and humiliating.

The oath of allegiance

The Washington meeting crystallized this reality. The leaders of Britain, Germany, France, and Italy – the core of Western Europe – were required to stand on stage and sign a statement endorsing US policy on Ukraine. The heads of the EU and NATO joined in. Each leader searched for his or her own words of submission, and all found them.

What looked absurd was in fact deadly serious. It was not about Ukraine’s fate – Kiev is merely a bargaining chip. It was about these European leaders publicly renouncing their autonomy. In practice, it was an oath of allegiance to Washington.

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Consequences for Russia

From Russia’s perspective, three conclusions follow.

First, the EU and Great Britain cease to exist as independent actors. After the Cold War, it was briefly fashionable to speak of European strategic autonomy. As late as 2003, Germany and France opposed the US invasion of Iraq. Today, such defiance is unimaginable. Western Europe has become an appendage of the United States.

Second, Russia’s strategy towards the region must change. For years, Moscow calculated that other European states, though dependent, could still act with partial independence and might support Russian interests under the right circumstances. Indeed, Russia’s most serious clashes with the West occurred when Western unity fractured. That assumption can no longer stand. Western Europe is now firmly absorbed into Washington’s orbit – a cog in a larger American machine.

Third, Russia and China must reassess their approach. Beijing still regards the EU as a potential neutral partner in its rivalry with Washington. But the Oval Office spectacle shows this is an illusion. Treating Western Europe as independent risks undermining the strategic interests of both Russia and China. The same applies to India and other BRICS partners who maintain strong ties to states in the region: they, too, must rethink their assumptions.

America adapts, Western Europe submits

The contrast is stark. The United States, for all its flaws, adapts to changing realities. Having poured resources into Kiev, it is now adjusting course, quietly abandoning the aim of “strategically defeating” Russia. This was signaled in Trump’s recent call with Vladimir Putin, which hinted at steps toward a settlement. Washington will continue to rely on force, but it shows flexibility when needed.

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Western Europe, by contrast, lacks this capacity. It flatters, submits, and waits for orders. The very spectacle of the White House meeting ensures that future generations of EU and British politicians will be conditioned to obedience. Having once bent the knee, they will not easily stand upright again.

The price of subjugation

History shows they were not always so timid. In the early 1980s, even amid Cold War tensions, Western Europeans defended their energy ties with Moscow against Reagan’s objections. They did so not out of love for the USSR, but because it suited their own interests. That clarity of purpose has vanished. Today, the EU cannot even articulate what its interests are.

The result is not partnership but neurosis: a half-continent trapped between the rhetoric of autonomy and the reality of subjugation. For Russia, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. A Western Europe that no longer knows itself cannot be a true adversary. It can only act as America’s proxy.

A serious show

The White House pageantry may have looked farcical. In truth, it marked the completion of the EU’s transformation from ally to subordinate. The bloc is no longer a partner to Russia or China, but an extension of American power. For Moscow, the lesson is clear: the west of Europe is lost, and strategy must be recalibrated accordingly.

Behind the absurd theatre was a serious message – one that Russia, China, and the rest of the non-Western world would be foolish to ignore.

suited

“Daddy” Trump and Western Europe’s oath of allegiance

“Daddy” Trump and Western Europe’s oath of allegiance

Fyodor Lukyanov: Western Europe is at Trump’s mercy

Fyodor Lukyanov: Western Europe is at Trump’s mercy

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Global South cyber forum to focus on ‘non-Western’ models – organizers