Table of Contents
Donald Trump has very few friends in leadership positions in Europe but he does have Secretary-General of NATO Mark Rutte, who leads an organisation not a country (although he was the prime minister of the Netherlands from 2014–2024). He is one of the few who understand where Trump is coming from. He quickly realised Trump’s criticisms of NATO were legitimate and needed to be addressed if the organisation was to be fit for purpose.
He also recognised that America and NATO need each other and if the partnership was to work to mutual advantage then NATO had to step up and become a more active beast than it had been previously. First, there was the question of financial input – that member countries needed to increase their defence spending from two to five per cent of GDP. Then, there was the question of how NATO should function in the future.
Rutte horrified European leaders by telling them a home truth: NATO could not function effectively without America. He told them their defence spend would increase to 10 per cent of GDP and the military hardware they would have to buy would cost billions. The message fell on deaf ears. They became angry and verbally attacked him. These predominantly socialist thinkers have yet to wake up to reality.
For some time, Europe’s leaders, the European Union and Europe as a whole have been suffering from a political pandemic. Unlike Covid, this particular virus originated in Washington DC, in the Oval Office, and has become known as Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). It is prevalent in Europe, and around the world, and fixates on one person rather than on the dangers the world is facing.
I feel for those who have it. It must be a debilitating condition and I imagine blood pressure tablets would always need to be within reach. So far I have managed to avoid it. But I digress while, at the same time, professing to be on the same page as the man currently in residence at the White House.
There is another European leader who is also on the same page and she is also a conservative: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – one very smart lady. Giorgia is earning a reputation as the Margaret Thatcher of the European Union, the Iron Lady of Europe. She has political skills that few other European leaders possess and is currently at war with Ursula von der Leyen.
I recently learnt that the outcome of the Greenland deal was due largely to Meloni’s political mediating skills. She largely aligns with Trump, his thinking and his strategy. But, when the threat of tariffs emanated from the Oval Office, Meloni decided to act. She called Trump to tell him that tariffs were counterproductive to what he was trying to achieve. Her advice was that his aims would only be achieved with the cooperation of Europe and NATO – and not by the insinuation of aggression. In this she was right.
Trump dropped the tariffs while Meloni contacted other European leaders. This led to the meeting between Trump and Rutte and a deal being struck. It is not complete, in the sense that there are still points that need clarification, mainly between America, Denmark and Greenland. But what Trump, Meloni and Rutte agree on is that the Arctic region needs a security umbrella around Greenland much greater than Denmark can provide. They recognise the increasing threats that could eventuate from Russia and China due to melting sea ice opening up more shipping lanes through the Arctic region.
Meloni concluded the way to ensure a successful outcome was by getting buy in through joint cooperation – by NATO countries being permanently involved in a long-term solution amenable to all parties, in conjunction with America. She also put together a document titled “Italy Arctic Policy. Italy and the Arctic. The Values of Cooperation in a Rapidly Transforming Region”. This was strategic thinking. It laid out Italy’s engagement across three pillars: security, scientific research and economic development. It recommended that NATO, rather than independent European nations, coordinate a Western presence in the Arctic. Again, she was right.
Meloni was building bridges not walls. She found a way to give Trump what he wanted: enhanced security in the Arctic, protection of Greenland from hostile powers and access to strategic resources, without forcing unnecessary confrontation with Denmark or fracturing NATO. Meloni positioned Italy as the mediator. She kept communication channels open while others were slamming doors. Meloni demonstrated you can be both pro America and pro Europe while at the same time being supportive of NATO.
Unlike most European leaders, she has not caught the TDS virus and she is Trump’s go to person in Europe; they understand each other. Meloni can talk to Trump like no other European leader can because they share conservative values. Meloni knows how he operates and what triggers his thinking. It is a lesson that other European leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, would do well to take on board. Getting infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome is totally counterproductive. You may not like the man but the reality is, in an increasingly dangerous geopolitical world, you can’t function effectively without him.
Trump, Meloni and Rutte are the future of strategising security in the Western Hemisphere. They, more than most, understand the threats, where they are and what needs to happen to nullify them. Opposing Trump simply because you don’t like him is abject folly and endangers the Western world. Not taking threats seriously and responding in a manner appropriate to them is not a good strategy: threats need to be dealt with before they become a serious problem.
Meloni’s intervention showed that establishing an understanding of how people you have to get alongside work – what makes them tick – is a very handy tool. This is a skill very few politicians and world leaders possess. It gives you the ability to disagree when necessary through dialogue and communication.
Western nations cosying up to China and talking nonsense about a new world order, as the Canadian prime minister did recently, simply because he too is infected with the Trump virus, is both dangerous and childish. Starmer in the United Kingdom, similarly infected, has momentarily transferred his affection from Brussels to Beijing. These are weak leaders who are most comfortable when playing petty politics. They are not interested in the broader picture but rather are fixated on scoring cheap political points against someone they don’t like. To them, Trump is the enemy and not Russia or China.
There are three leaders who do see the bigger picture in a Western Hemisphere context and, fortunately for us, these three are taking lead roles in making it a safer place. Trump, Rutte and Meloni are the ones working on what will most likely become a new world order, but it won’t be the one Mark Carney was talking about. It will be one based on conservative values and where nationalism takes priority over socialist dictates. This is the exact disagreement Meloni is having with von der Leyen.
I have long been impressed with Giorgia Meloni as a strong leader. Her future moves both inside and outside the European Union will be worthy of close attention. I will address this further in a future post.
