Trump policy under attack from all sides at European conference

[struggle4progress]

By Griff Witte and Michael Birnbaum
February 16 at 2:29 PM

MUNICH — An annual security conference where Western allies have long forged united fronts erupted Saturday into a full-scale assault on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. European leaders, would-be Democratic challengers and even the president’s Republican backers took the floor to rebuke the president’s go-it-alone approach.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel — habitually cautious about provoking Trump — led the charge, unleashing a stinging, point-by-point takedown of the administration’s tendency to treat its allies as adversaries ...

The crowd gave the German chancellor an extended standing ovation — a rare display at the normally button-down Munich Security Conference. The customarily reserved Merkel beamed as she took her seat. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a top adviser, looked on from the crowd, stone-faced ...

Merkel was followed to the podium Saturday by Vice President Pence, who was met with only tepid applause — and some incredulous looks — when he proclaimed Trump “the leader of the free world” ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/trump-foreign-policy-under-attack-from-all-sides-at-european-security-conference/2019/02/16/9b1a713a-2fac-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.html?utm_term=.74e45357942c

[struggle4progress]

1. Merkel defends Iran deal; Pence blasts Europe

Feb. 16, 2019 Updated: Feb. 16, 2019 1:23 p.m.

10 p.m. ... Pence .. doubled down on American criticism of Europe ... Merkel told the group that she shared American concerns about Iranian efforts to increase its power. But she defended the nuclear deal as an important channel to Tehran, stressing the need for international diplomacy ...

7:30 p.m. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he's ashamed that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence didn't mention climate change at an international security conference and is vowing to help make it a voting issue ...

https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/world/article/The-Latest-Egypt-s-president-wants-more-action-13621859.php

[struggle4progress]

2. Pence blasts allies on Iran, Venezuela

Thomson Reuters · Posted: Feb 16, 2019 2:10 PM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

As U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence launched a renewed rebuke of European powers over their position on Iran and Venezuela on Saturday, leaders from Canada and Germany defended their own multilateral vision for how the West should address world crises ...

... traditional American allies are troubled by Trump's rhetoric, which they say is erratic and disruptive, citing his decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as undermining an arms control agreement that prevented Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

Leaders including Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland stressed on Saturday the importance of taking a multilateral approach to dealing with international issues, pointing to recent initiatives such as the Lima Group of Latin American countries, which has attempted to respond to the continuing political and economic crisis in Venezuela.

"We need to be finding new ways to work together," said Freeland ...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pence-rebukes-european-leaders-venezuela-iran-1.5022633

[struggle4progress]

3. Spain Dismisses Appeal for NATO Allies to Fill in Syria

By GLEN CAREY AND BEN SILLS
BLOOMBERG February 16, 2019

(Bloomberg) — A U.S. appeal for NATO allies to fill the void left by its imminent withdrawal from Syria was dismissed by Spain’s foreign minister, still bristling at Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to bring his troops home.

Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at the Munich Security Conference that the U.S. is asking NATO members and other partners to provide “the resources and the support and the personnel” required to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State once U.S. operations conclude.

“Requests between countries aren’t made in press releases or conference comments,” Spain’s Josep Borrell said at a briefing in Munich on Saturday. “Spain and the majority of countries aren’t prepared to step in for the U.S. after a withdrawal that was decided in a unilateral way, by surprise” ...

http://time.com/5531286/spain-dismisses-us-syria-nato/

[roamer65]

4. Time for the Federal Republic of Europe.

Bundesrepublik Europa.

[struggle4progress]

5. Munich Security Conference 2019

... the rambunctious specter of POTUS haunts the narrow gold-lit corridors of Munich's Bayerischer Hof hotel.

As US President Donald Trump pulls his country out of hard-won multilateral agreements and painstakingly eked-out treaties, before upending decades of carefully calibrated diplomatic norms with a late-night tweet, the comfortable decorum of the MSC has become fraught ...

... it fell on Friday to Lindsey Graham, Republican member of the US Senate Committee for Foreign Relations, to defend Trump's style. "The president can be a handful," he told the large conference room full of the world's top diplomats, "but so can all of you." He went on to explain that when Trump says "America First," all he really means is "burden-sharing" among US allies ...

https://www.dw.com/en/munich-security-conference-2019-who-can-save-the-liberal-world-order/a-47547868

[msongs]

6. trump doesnt care and neither do republicans. all this gnashing of teeth is useless nt

[RKP5637]

7. More and more it's clear the world hates tRump! n/t

[smirkymonkey]

8. Ivanka Trump, a "top advisor"?

WTF? What the hell does she know about anything except bad fashion and plastic surgery?

What a joke!

[SunSeeker]

13. Sending her is an insult to our allies. nt

[smirkymonkey]

14. Absolutely!

Who on earth does she think she is? Our allies must be laughing their asses off at us.

[Apollyonus]

9. I'm not surprised

Europeans are far more analytical and less prone to single issue politics.

They are also far more egalitarian and despise bigots by a large margin.

As Bertrand Russell said once ... he had no desire to visit America because it lacked history and culture .....

[PatrickforO]

10. ANY one of the people on your signature line would be an order

of magnitude better than Trump.

[Apollyonus]

16. Oh come on ...

next you'll tell me that ice is cold ...

[NoMoreRepugs]

11. Ivanka was there in what capacity?

To keep an eye on sixPence?

[struggle4progress]

12. Daddy's little tattler, I think

[Martin Eden]

15. Pence is a Putin Proxy

For the Puppet President.

Ripping America away from the Western alliance is Putin's wet dream, and that is what Trump is doing.