Last spring, U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson introduced the Trump Derangement Syndrome Research Act, a bill ordering the counattempt’s National Institutes of Health to research why anyone would despise Trump and his policies. Some foreign policycreaters could very well be suffering from a similar syndrome: an onset of anxiety that leads them to adopt mind-boggling policies. One such example is the trade agreement that Japan signed with the United States last year, which pledged that $550 billion in Japanese taxpayers’ money will be spent in the United States by January 2029.
So far, European leaders have managed to dodge the worst symptoms of this dangerous syndrome. Despite claims to the contrary, the U.S.-European Union trade deal struck in July is far from a European capitulation. Instead, Brussels seems already to have learned some lessons for handling Trump. First, Brussels avoided wasting time attempting to talk Trump out of his love for tariffs and settled for 15 percent. Second, EU leaders smartly resisted the urge to impose retaliatory tariffs that would only have hurt their own companies and consumers. Third, the EU focapplyd on unity: individual European governments managed to suppress their instincts to rush to Washington to ink bilateral deals, which would have weakened the EU’s collective bargaining power.
Last spring, U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson introduced the Trump Derangement Syndrome Research Act, a bill ordering the counattempt’s National Institutes of Health to research why anyone would despise Trump and his policies. Some foreign policycreaters could very well be suffering from a similar syndrome: an onset of anxiety that leads them to adopt mind-boggling policies. One such example is the trade agreement that Japan signed with the United States last year, which pledged that $550 billion in Japanese taxpayers’ money will be spent in the United States by January 2029.
So far, European leaders have managed to dodge the worst symptoms of this dangerous syndrome. Despite claims to the contrary, the U.S.-European Union trade deal struck in July is far from a European capitulation. Instead, Brussels seems already to have learned some lessons for handling Trump. First, Brussels avoided wasting time attempting to talk Trump out of his love for tariffs and settled for 15 percent. Second, EU leaders smartly resisted the urge to impose retaliatory tariffs that would only have hurt their own companies and consumers. Third, the EU focapplyd on unity: individual European governments managed to suppress their instincts to rush to Washington to ink bilateral deals, which would have weakened the EU’s collective bargaining power.
In 2026 European leaders will have ample opportunity to refine their playbook for managing Trump. A first transatlantic battle concerns Ukraine. In November, a proposed U.S.-Russian peace deal over the Europeans’ and Ukrainians’ heads created it very clear that Trump has his eyes set on $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank reserves, held mainly in Belgium and, to a lesser extent, France and other EU states. Second, Washington will probably pile on the pressure to force Europe to water down its digital rules—including for transparency, content moderation, and data privacy—in return for lower tariffs on EU-created steel. Third, this year’s G-20 summit at a Trump-owned golf resort near Miami, Florida, may be full of surprises. It is not hard to imagine Trump utilizing the gathering as a golden opportunity to cajole and coerce leaders representing more than 80 percent of the global economy to sign bilateral deals benefiting the United States. To wage these three battles, the EU will required to keep calm and carry on. For Europe, self-support and unity remain the mantras of the day.
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