Christian Kloetzer

Haaretz article: “A Western source who participated in the negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal told Haaretz that senior European Union officials are guided primarily by a desire "not to upset Trump," particularly given European interests tied to the war in Ukraine and the continuation of U.S. support for Kyiv.”

You know what, Vance was right, the biggest threat to Europe is internal. But it’s not the imagined oppression at the hands of woke elites, it’s European officials who think that if they submit hard enough to Trump we will be spared.

Needless to say, my thoughts on foreign policy are fairly irrelevant. That’s why I don’t get published in the Atlantic. The invasion of Iraq cleared both congressional and public opinion hurdles, and yet was a disaster, for the USA but first and foremost for the region.

Leave it to American commentators to give you the most self-absorbed reasons for why war in the Middle East that further emboldens Israel’s revisionist agenda is a bad idea.

The uptick and then decline is compatible with the idea that Leavers got what they claimed to want (no ethnic selection in immigration), and then did not like it. The UK's immigration debate today really doesn't suggest that Leavers think "if it weren't for small boats it'd be perfect as it is."

"Fouqha and his ambulance crew were then forced to watch on helplessly as Jad lay bleeding from his wounds. The paramedic said they watched for at least 35 minutes, unable to do anything.

[...]

The IDF has said that Jad threw a rock and was a 'terrorist' who 'attempted to attack the force'."

Whether they are racists is besides the point. They preferred Western immigration and got less Western but more non-Western immigration. So if Brexit improved their attitudes t/w immigration as you argue, that's not because it changed immigration flows to their preference, it just gave them a win.

But that shows how the Leavers' attitude towards immigration was constructed around a buzzword by a political campaign. Objectively, given the number and origin of immigrants after 2020, Leavers had little to feel more positive over.

Because of Brexit perhaps, but that may well be in the way Americans are becoming more pro-immigration because they reject Trump's extremism on that issue.

FT headline: Rubio tells Europe that US will not abandon transatlantic alliance Secretary of state says Washington wants to work ‘together with you, our friends’ on the continent

FT headline: "Rubio skips Ukraine meeting with European leaders in Munich US secretary of state cancels attendance at last minute in move that EU official calls ‘insane’"

Can we please not fall for this? He is not even trying to pretend convincingly, and at any rate his influence on American foreign policy-making seems rather marginal. The only interest the Trump admin has in not abandoning Europe is that all its leverage would disappear overnight if it did.

And here I was, thinking Merz is the current Deutschlandvorsteher.

The Academic Programme link seems to be for last year's GC.

US government to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities in Europe State department grants to spread ‘American values’ are part of Washington’s 250th anniversary celebrations

Trump support in the US is slowly whittling down to his (still sizable) core MAGA base, despite their propaganda and knowing their target group. With Trump already unpopular over here, them trying to shift opinion in Europe, which exists in MAGA heads only as a caricature, could easily backfire.

Quite the comeback for the CDA, from five seats in the previous Parliament to having Ministers of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Economy.

This is another way of making this point clear.

New York Times headline (3 February 2026): "Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections The comments, made on a conservative podcast, follow a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections."

From the NYT article: "Mr. Trump has made little secret of his interest in expanding the federal government’s role in administering American elections. Last month, he told The Times that he regretted not dispatching the National Guard to seize voting machinery after the 2020 election. During his interview with Mr. Bongino, Mr. Trump tied his desire for partisan control of voting mechanisms to his administration’s agenda to find and deport undocumented immigrants from American cities. “If Republicans don’t get them out, you will never win another election as a Republican,” he said, referring to undocumented immigrants. “It’s crazy how you can get these people to vote. If we don’t get them out, look, Republicans will never win another election.” There is no evidence that a significant number of noncitizens have voted in any American election. A 2024 audit by Georgia’s secretary of state found that just 20 of the 8.2 million people registered to vote in Georgia were not citizens, and only nine had ever voted."

The NYT still thinks Trump's claims about immigrants stealing elections is a disagreement about facts. But MAGA supporters undoubtedly understand the message: namely that a system of elections that allows MAGA to lose is not worth having. Everything else is a footnote to that story.

But I don't see that in the tweet. It even speaks of "Dutch law", which suggests legitimacy, as opposed to "the German occupants' law". He's making an entirely different point, as far as I can see.

Sure, but the Rabbi goes right on to point out how the situation in Minneapolis is totally different because of illegality. So I think it's reasonable to say he's not making a philosophical critique of the concept of legality as justification for government actions.

What needs to be explicitly stated is that that regime's quality invalidates any claim to illegality, and that is not in the tweet. I agree with your second sentence, and that's why Holocaust remembrance that focuses on the fine print is one that misses the unconditional evil of death camps.

There is nothing in that post that highlights the question of regime quality and how it interacts w/ legality of residence. What I'm pointing out is the non-chalance with which the conditions under which you were dragged off to the death camps are dissected here (and falsely, as the OP pointed out).

"The problem with the death camps was that *legal* residents were dragged there" also really misses half the evil in that sentence.

Really liked this, thanks.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, UAE join Trump's 'Board of Peace' Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Qatar have accepted invitations to join U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a joint statement ...

I am sure all the people — and countries — that trashtalked the UN because a country like Saudi Arabia also sat on its Human Rights Council will want nothing to do with this Board of Peace contraption.

YouTube video by demonflyingfox Greenland Defense Front - Not For Sale (Official Music Video)

Generative AI is the devil, but this is genius. And what a song! www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ln...

All diverted to Switzerland presumably.

Opinion | Europe Has a Bazooka. Time to Use It.

"If Europe wants to retain its independence, it needs to commit to action. The anti-coercion instrument, for all its faults, is the best option that Europe has. It should start the process of activating it, and quickly announce the specific measures it would impose."

*voice from the off*

That's why Denmark entered into extensive security arrangements with its North Atlantic treaty partners, first and foremost the United States.

I can only assume this is not happening because Germany's established parties are afraid of voicing public opposition to Trump. So this is another entry in the growing list of benefits of acknowledging that Europe has nothing to gain and much to lose from still thinking of this USA as an ally.

Excerpt from the Financial Times (16.1.2026): "The far-right Alternative for Germany party has intensified its contacts with Donald Trump's Maga movement as it seeks to forge international alliances and guard itself against the risk of a domestic political ban. Dozens of officials from the AfD have travelled to the US in recent months to meet senior Republicans, seeking common cause over policies such as curbing immigration and jointly combating European efforts to regulate social media. About 20 party figures flew to New York in December to attend a gala held by the New York Young Republican Club, where the AfD's foreign policy spokesperson Markus Frohnmaier was honoured with an award."

Screenshot from the Jerusalem Post (16.12.2025): "Those who did attend the gala included a NYYRC member and former George Santos staffer who had posted a video depicting Jews as cockroaches, costing him his job on Matt Gaetz’s news show; politicians from Germany’s far-right party which the country officially labeled an extremist group; Jared Taylor, the editor of a white supremacist website called American Renaissance; and Sneako, the streamer who posts antisemitic content and has said 'people are sick of hearing about the Holocaust.'"

Germany's sane parties really should start hammering the AfD for their ties to MAGA, *before* their apathy leads enough voters to believe that MAGA ideology is just the new normal that one has to find some sort of arrangement with. And the AfD could not make it easier for them.