Applebaum: Trump White House Works to Reshape European Politics, Backing Both Sides
A new Atlantic essay says the U.S. is promoting European rearmament while also boosting politicians, including Germany's AfD, who oppose it.
What to know
- An Atlantic essay by Anne Applebaum accuses the Trump White House of trying to micromanage and reshape coalitions within allied European governments.
- The essay argues Washington simultaneously promotes European rearmament and defense cooperation while also backing politicians, including Germany's AfD, who oppose it.
- Kimberly Guilfoyle is named in connection with the alleged effort.
- The piece's headline shifted from "The Menacing MAGA Way to Remake European Politics" to "The U.S. Is Bullying Europe Like Never Before" as it circulated.
Anne Applebaum Atlantic staff writer, essay authorDonald Trump / White House Subject of the essayKimberly Guilfoyle Named in essay in connection with alleged meddlingAfD (Alternative for Germany) German far-right party
How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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The Atlantic retitles the piece "The U.S. Is Bullying Europe Like Never Before"
The Atlantic republished or re-promoted the essay under a new, blunter headline as it continued to circulate via gift links and social shares.
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1 outlet first by The Atlantic, 7d ago · read ↗
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At a dinner in Athens in March, Kimberly Guilfoyle, then the U.S. ambassador to Greece, made a statement that elegantly combined arrogance with menace. According to The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, Guilfoyle referred to the troubles of Romania’s governing coalition and, with Greek politicians in the room, took credit for its…
2 more of the top 3 · 50 posts in this stretch
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The comments at time of writing are blissfully ignorant of the European political culture inside and outside of the EU.On the one hand, there are only politicians available in two kinds: those who insist on blindly glazing the US regardless of the harm it does to Europe and those who insist on blindly glazing the Russia/China/Iran axis regardless…
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No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. The 22nd Amendment only bars him from being elected…
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Applebaum details the White House's dual-track coalition strategy
In a follow-up social post, Applebaum explains the essay's core claim: Washington promotes European rearmament publicly while simultaneously backing politicians who oppose defense cooperation, aiming to reshape coalitions rather than just influence policy.
“The White House wants not just to influence European politics, but to reshape coalitions. So while ostensibly promoting European rearmament and European defense cooperation, they also promote politicians who oppose rearmament or defense cooperation.”
— Anne Applebaum -
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The White House wants not just to influence European politics, but to reshape coalitions. So while ostensibly promoting European rearmament and European defense cooperation, they also promote politicians who oppose rearmament or defense cooperation.
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Applebaum publishes essay on U.S. meddling in European politics
Anne Applebaum's Atlantic essay argues the U.S. is trying to micromanage allied governments to an unprecedented degree, naming Kimberly Guilfoyle and Germany's AfD in connection with the effort.
“The U.S. is trying to micromanage allied governments to an unprecedented degree.”
— The Atlantic
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Mastodon, 7d ago · also The Atlantic
What people are saying 20 voices from 3 sites · best of 51 · verbatim
- Nov 4
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It’s bigger than Europe economically & geographically if u exclude Russia. Economically it’s bigger tho with Russia. Sad as 10 years ago, before AI, Europe & US was roughly similar in GDP. Europe has lost a lot this last decade. It needs to change its economic model to compete and stop the riots as the young see a bleak future.
- Nov 3
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Europe has always been bullied by the US, this is exactly like what happened in 1971 with the Nixon shock (the end of fixed exchange rates set by the dollar, once America went from a positive to a negative trade deficit).America has always used the dollar monopoly + international treaties + sanctions, etc, as wrench to beat other countries into…
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I think this is largely a Trump thing as bullying is kind of his schtick. I mean he was the model for the bully in Back to the Future (1985). I hope we can return to civillity before too long.
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The U.S. is self destructing and it starts by pushing its friends and family away. This is a very common step in self destruction.Capitalists set the world on fire to get the biggest mansion on the moon.
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Americans here saying that the world is a zero sum game and we Europeans should be doing the same back to the US govt as they do to us miss a few key points:- we want to but cannot because we could not project that the country which convinced us to embrace our current political and economic system would abandon it and punish us for following-…
- Nov 2
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Yes, we love bullying places that have 100 million more people us but also $9.3 trillion less GDP than us. It appears the "sick man of Europe" is…Europe? Heal thyself. We need you guys back in the game.
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To be blunt, the major countries in the EU have not adapted to their diminished status in a world where economic and military power have concentrated elsewhere.The EU has lagged the US in economic dynamism (link below). This deficit drives the inability to project economic or military power, forcing the EU rely on the US to support its foreign…
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Unfortunately Europe and the EU have allowed themselves to be squeezed on all sides by USA, China, and Russia through several decades of short sighted policy and extreme over-reliance on globalism.The financial crisis in France and Italy, and the general societal unrest everywhere has not just come out of nowhere. Europe is just simply not…
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You can’t “bully” a continent that is entirely dependent on you for its security. The Ukraine war has proven that Europe is utterly incapable of putting out a fire in its own back yard without American military and financial support.
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The easiest and most sensible course of action is to immediately terminate anti-circumvention laws. Those were smuggled in as a condition of tariff agreements. Keeping them on the books merely makes it possible for US corporations to continue to take advantage of EU citizens, while also ignoring consumer protection laws.
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I hope Europe can stand up and protect its sovereignty , i didn’t believe how much Trump harassed Europe until i had a conversation with chatgpt. All the under sea cabling Europe has to protect its digital data is at risk, Elon musk wants total control of Europes skies and data through us owned satellites with no protection from us eyes. Tariffs…
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You are making a straw man argument. No one forgave the holocaust. 10 nazi leaders were hanged and even today Germany imprisons people who they find guilty of the holocaust. Is this your idea of forgivness? I also literally explained how the political system of Germany was changed and most of the nazis and nazi sympathisers are already dead. So…
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It's reasonable but that won't improve the situation. On an individual level, there is a country and legal system you can appeal to intervene on your behalf if you feel you are being treated unfairly but there is nothing similar on the international scale. International law sounds good but there is no real enforcement behind it unlikely national…
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I largely agree, but just want to clarify that when you say US propaganda it's also Russian state propaganda (among others) that has just become monetized in the American far-right populist attention economy. Point is, none of them have any autonomous ideation. Even if they're American on paper and their pretendo patriotism fools voters, their de…
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Trump tried to overthrow the Polish government. He urged Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz to leave the governing coalition. The aim was to create a Polish government that would be subordinate to Washington — or rather, Moscow. https://www. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/11/…
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What's a long time to you? Im no historian but when I've real about what is India today (geographically) and its history its largely been separate states. Like when the British arrived they took control state by state. The big empires proceeding British like Mauryan and Mughals ruled over states rather than a unified nation.
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I do genuinely think the best thing Europe could do is move towards a "United States of Europe" model What's you reason for that? I feel the opposite. Generally the more centralised control becomes more bureaucratic and the more you head down the cronyism route. I feel the EU should be pulling back and really looking to focus on core issues only…
- Nov 1
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Laughs in ASML; Laughs in German products shipped to the US. We might have an energy problem, but we will manage. Out average internet connection is 100mbit or more and our entire country uses fiber. Our government is fully digitized, we dont have paper forms. Banking also. I am pretty sure you Americans are not so modern as you may think. Your…
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How exactly would that fix anything? So now instead of two dozen smaller countries with "large welfare states, atrophied militaries and lack of innovation/a strong startup/investment ecosystem" you now have a single country with "large welfare states, atrophied militaries and lack of innovation/a strong startup/investment ecosystem"...
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While I do agree that they’re running on fumes, what “modern states” are they actually far behind apart from US and China? You could argue Japan and Korea but their economies are pretty stagnant too. Personally, I think the US economy is just an outlier and they’ve only reached this far ahead of everyone else because of Europe’s complacency.