Shona Murray: EU's bids to mollify Trump were met with nothing but chaos, tariffs, and war

All of those auditioning to be the EU's 'Trump whisperer' have been roundly rebuffed. Some say it's time for Europe to break away from the US and go it alone

Donald Trump with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leaders including Giorgia Meloni, Emmanuel Macron, Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Ursula von der Leyen, Nato leader Mark Rutte, and Germany's Friedrich Merz at the White House last year. Picture: Aaron Schwartz/PA

The EU is really feeling the weight of US hostility less than two years after Donald Trump’s return as US president. Brussels is now struggling to respond to the latest coercive measure from the White House. 

This time, a 25% tariff on Europe’s car industry looms. Trump says the reason behind it is that the EU is “not complying with our fully agreed-to trade deal”. 

More likely, the motivation is to distract from the war on Iran, and punish German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said recently that the Iranian regime was “humiliating” White House negotiators. 

The German car industry — notwithstanding the existential crisis it’s facing now — was once the golden goose for Germany’s economy. 

Trump has, for the longest time, held a grudge that there are BMWs and Mercedes aplenty on the streets of New York, but zero Chevrolets on the streets of Berlin. It’s not hard to see who he’s targeting.

As one senior EU official pithily put it in the aftermath of last year’s tariff event, which resulted in the EU agreeing 15% tariffs on most goods into the US, and zero tariffs the other direction:

This is solved for now, but we’re always only a Truth Social post away from disaster. 

In the early days of this administration, many in Brussels acknowledged it would be a difficult relationship, but there was a fairly reliable strategy: Be nice to him, grovel, and maybe he’ll at least stay on our side over Ukraine against Russia.

Auditions for role as EU's Trump whisperer 

Just as Trump was elected US president in November 2024, the burning question in Brussels was who would be the ideal ‘Trump whisperer?’ 

The candidate would preferably be a leader of one of the EU states, be a member of Nato, and committed to supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression.

At the same time, they’d have to be sufficiently right-wing and likely share the Trump administration’s “values” when it comes immigration. While also coming from an exporting country with skin in the game to assuage some of Trump’s reckless tendencies when it comes to EU-US trade...

Many names were up for consideration. 

Viktor Orban — nope

Hungary’s outgoing autocratic prime minister Viktor Orban was the most compatible ally for Trump.

But that’s because he was a subversive who took the side of Europe’s biggest enemies, such as Vladimir Putin. 

No good as an emissary for Europe’s interests.

Giorgia Meloni — a real contender

Serious contenders included Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni — a conservative nationalist with a long track record of having a hardline approach to immigrants. She fitted nicely into Trump’s GOP and its obsession with their own brand of ‘Western civilisation’.

Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni listens to US president Donald Trump at a summit in Egypt last year. Picture: Evan Vucci/Pool/AP

“I know that when I speak about the West mainly, I don’t speak about geographical space. I speak about the civilisation, and I want to make that civilisation stronger,” she said this time last year at a meeting with Trump at the Oval Office, amid the height of the ‘Liberation Day’ tariff extravaganza.

Even throughout the irretrievably damaging episode last January, when Trump insisted he would “take” Greenland — a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, which is an EU country and Nato ally, Meloni wasn’t too vocal in her calls for Trump to back off. Unlike other allies.

Friedrich Merz  — well, he tried

Merz was another runner, a committed trans-Atlanticist with impeccable English and the biggest stake in US trade out of all EU countries (Ireland is, per capita, on par with Germany as most vulnerable to US tariffs).

Merz was eager to crack the code which involved keeping Trump interested in America’s commitment to European security, especially Ukraine.

Germany's chancellor Friedrich Merz with US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office in March. Last year, Mr Merz made his pitch to be Europe's Trump whisperer by plámásing Trump but it was all destined to come to nothing. Picture: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

It was a worthwhile endeavour, and he started off well with the tried-and-tested flattery approach.

On his first visit to Washington, in view of the world’s press, he proudly handed Trump a framed copy of his grandfather, Friedrich Trump’s birth certificate, born in 1869 in Kallstadt, Germany.

It was an impressive attempt and was indeed a subtle but obvious-enough hat tip to Trump’s European, immigrant roots.

Keir Starmer — the EU-curious one

Then there was Keir Starmer, no longer in the EU, but EU-curious. And, crucially, a strong defender of Ukraine. 

He offered an unprecedented second state visit to the UK hosted at Windsor Castle, one of the homes to King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Britain's Keir Starmer was able to offer Donald Trump a second state visit. 

Meanwhile, Europeans took the White House’s frequent diatribes on the chin and bent over backwards to accommodate the Americans. From the humiliation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy by JD Vance and Trump in the White House, to the national security strategy laced with references to Europe as an obstacle to US prosperity.

Trump's response: Illegal wars

Europeans celebrated emphatically Trump’s demands that Nato move from a 2% of GDP on defence to 5% by 2030 at a time when their economies were being hit by tariff fluctuations and global instability. All for Trump to keep his side of the bargain, which was to force Putin to the negotiating table and end his merciless, imperialist war on Ukraine.

Instead, he started an illegal war with Iran, triggering a global economic shock. And emboldened a brutal regime which he said he was aiming to destroy.

And even then, EU leaders refused to criticise him, with Merz saying now was not the time to “lecture allies on international law”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was subjected to an appalling humiliation in the White House by Donald Trump and JD Vance, the leaders of Ukraine's supposed ally. File picture

Since then, Meloni, Merz, and Starmer have somewhat found their voices by refusing to send soldiers, sailors, and military assets to join the war in the Strait of Hormuz. It has led to Trump decrying Meloni as “no longer the same person, and Italy will not be the same country”.

On Merz, he spent three consecutive days lashing out at the German leader. Telling him he should be “fixing his broken country” and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war — and spend less time “interfering” in Iran. 

This followed Merz’s ill-timed criticism that the Iran war was ill-conceived. 

Trump then announced that he would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany Nato military bases. And on Starmer he’s done similar.

Is it time to think the unthinkable? Europe without the US.