The EU foreign policy chief has declared that “the free world needs a new leader”, as European leaders threw their support behind Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after the stunning White House confrontation between him and Donald Trump.
Leaders from across Europe expressed their solidarity with the Ukrainian leader after the fractious exchange with JD Vance, the US vice-president, and Trump, who claimed he was not “ready for peace” and accused him of “gambling with world war three”.
Although in general, the European leaders did not name the US president, their comments late on Friday laid bare the gaping rift between the US and its traditional allies in Europe over the war in Ukraine.
In a social media post, Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, wrote: “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor.
“Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”
I disagree. If it was a single conversation the world would be shocked but they could still cover it up. Politicians say dumb shit and walk it back all the time.
It’s the fact that his first term was already such a blundering mess in terms of diplomacy, combined with the fact that he somehow got re-elected, the accelerating bullshit ever since and now finally this mess. If they hadn’t been chipping away at any international goodwill so thoroughly, the response would be closer to “I can’t believe a US president would say that” rather than “the US as a whole is no longer reliable”.