Europe should play the long game and just wait out Trump's presidency instead of discarding the US as a partner, Political Science and International Affairs Professor William Lawrence says. #Trump
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00:00Just on the signal leak story that you mentioned there, a very interesting point you made.
00:06But I'm just wondering, after we saw what was written in there about Europe, can Europe
00:13trust America as a really strong ally still?
00:17No.
00:18The vast bulk of the foreign policy establishment, the civilian personnel at the State Department
00:25and the Pentagon that they're trying to force out, the think tanks, the foreign policy establishment,
00:31they haven't changed at all on Europe.
00:33But there is this sort of aspect of the conservative right in the US, some of it attached to the
00:39MAGA movement and all of it backing Trump, that would like to see the US get more from
00:45the world while giving less to the world.
00:48And it's sort of an untenable calculation, but America first is not always logical.
00:52In some ways, it's more emotional than logical and ideological more than logical.
00:58But in the end, I think the US, as long as it remains a democracy and elections happen,
01:04which there's a risk there, it'll come back around.
01:07So I think Europeans are smart to play the long game, not to antagonize Trump the way
01:11Zelensky doesn't antagonize Trump, keep their criticism private, try to get the Americans
01:16to do the right thing as much as possible in a very negative situation, and then wait
01:20out the Trump administration.