Trump inherited a strong America. That’s a weak Europe’s problem

DONALD Trump’s inauguration speech was remarkable for many reasons, but what stood out watching from afar was the dissonance as he described a United States that was in existential decline and in need of rescue. In fact, America is in rude health, and its 47th president’s description was more apt for Europe.

Across the pond, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out a vision on Tuesday (Jan 21) that was equally hard to square with reality. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, at the start of her own second term, she described a continent of innovative strength, committed to immutable principles, ready for change and finding strength from unity in the face of adversity.

Europe’s actual circumstances are closer to Trump’s dystopia than Von der Leyen’s idyll. The continent’s business model has broken and it remains painfully slow to change. It’s increasingly riven as nationalist leaders challenge fundamental EU principles. One, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico speculated this week that the European Union and Nato may not long survive a changing world.