(Getty stock photo.)
We ducked into a Dublin pub to grab a quick pint and wound up getting an earful on the American presidential race from nervous Europeans. Their anxiety about the U.S. election was off the charts. We traveled across the pond to escape the stress of politics back home, but these folks talked of nothing else.
So, over a Guinness (or two) we listened. Locals shared their alarm about the approaching vote in America and their perplexity about why it was such a close affair. A former officer in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) who spent a career working for NATO drew his chair nearer to us. His wife joined him.
Like many folks overseas, they keenly followed the American campaign and shuddered to think of the global ramifications of another Trump presidency. The retired lieutenant colonel, whose work had taken him to the states (including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base east of Dayton) was gravely worried about NATO’s future if its most prominent critic and Putin fanboy returned to power in the U.S.
Trump, the couple noted, had a lengthy history of bashing the security alliance and particularly European allies with appalling comments — including one (this year) in which he declared that he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they wanted” to any NATO member country that didn’t meet his definition of contributing enough defense spending.
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The remark stunned members of the collective military pact on both sides of the Atlantic and confirmed Europe’s worst fears about Trump throwing allied nations to the wolves should he win. The threat kept the old RAF pilot up at night. His wife shifted apprehensively.
Trump’s long-standing affinity for Putin, she said, combined with the former president’s cavalier taunts to undermine NATO (or threaten U.S. withdrawal) horrified Europeans eying Russia’s re-emergence as a murderous regime on the prowl for an empire. The strength of trans-Atlantic cooperation on vital security and peace hung in the balance of the American election for president.
The destabilizing implications of a post-American NATO for the European Union were too disturbing to contemplate. In all the biggest conflicts in and around Europe, the U.S has played a central role as a global peacemaker, the pair argued. But if the continent’s most important partner is again led by Trump — whose previous administration strained the transatlantic relationship — the next iteration would almost certainly be worse.
The conversation went into overdrive. Somebody noted the ex-president’s open support for Europe’s autocratic governments, such as Victor Orbán’s party in Hungary, and how the high-profile endorsement of anti-democratic leadership had already emboldened the far-right internationally. A comeback for a vengeful Trump (without guardrails) would further legitimize European nationalists and populists.
Europe’s firewall against the extreme right holds for now but the outcome of the U.S. election could change everything. “We are really scared,” confided the wife of the RAF veteran. She was under no illusions about Trump’s fantasy to replicate a “Hungarian style” regime in America where the president governs without checks and balances. His absolute predominance over the state is already spelled out in the dystopian Project 2025 manifesto.
Like others tracking the U.S. election abroad, the NATO couple remained baffled by millions of American voters inextricably wedded to Trump — no matter what. They display blind allegiance to their cult of personality leader regardless of what he has done of vows to do. They’re Team Trump despite all.
Despite his promise to be a dictator on day one of a second term. Despite his attempt to overturn a presidential election he lost and lied about (“stolen election”) to retain power. Despite his charge to armed supporters on Jan. 6 to “fight like hell.” Despite his undisguised glee when they stormed the U.S Capitol, beat police, hunted lawmakers and tried to hang his vice-president in Trump’s name.
Despite his recasting of the violent insurrection as “a day of love” when “nothing” was “done wrong” and insistence that the transfer of power in 2021 was really peaceful — under savage assault. Despite his refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the 2024 election while he seeds fertile ground for post-election violence with increasingly extreme rhetoric.
Despite his deeply ominous suggestion that “the enemy from within,” or fellow Americans in the political opposition or free press, are more dangerous than foreign adversaries and may need to be handled by the National Guard or the military. Despite being a twice-impeached disgrace, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and criminal defendant in four pending cases. Despite all that.
Confounded Europeans pressed us on why Trump voters continue to back him without question. Their support seems impervious to the outrage he generates or the objective facts he denies. The Republican presidential nominee is running neck and neck with the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump could be inaugurated this January following the fourth anniversary of the insurrection he incited. We’ve crossed into crazy.
The international therapy group across the pond dusted off the last of the Guinness in a neighborhood pub and carried on. Unsettled. The American tourists were spent. An existential turning point in America we could hardly imagine let alone explain five years ago has us living on a knife’s edge. We were at a loss for words. Like the rest of the world.
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