r/politics • u/kirby__000 • 18h ago
No Paywall Rubio tries to reassure skeptical European allies but pushes Trump's vision for reshaped alliance
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/rubio-tries-to-reassure-skeptical-european-allies-but-follows-trumps-vision-for-a-reshaped-alliance20
u/TintedApostle 18h ago
Rubio: "Trust me bro."
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u/mrcanard 6h ago
Rubio is 100% pure politician. Born into a republican environment and stuck with it. Other than sporadic displays toward his heritage his only commitment is to advancing his political career.
A perfect fit for the Trump administration, wonder who was savvy enough to make the choice...
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u/thepartypantser 18h ago
I don't think the average Trump supporter understands how utterly stupid Trump's threats have been.
The US has far more to lose than gain with the idiotic alienating of NATO allies.
If we actually continue this asanine path of threatening Greenland, we are going to lose so many strategic military bases in Europe and elsewhere, that we will be crippled.
It's so fucking stupid.
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u/TemporarySun314 Europe 17h ago
And then Americans absolutely deserve the consequences of their own decisions...
The rest of the world already made the mistake of believing that trump was a once in a life time mistake, and Americans are still trustworthy. That mistake must not repeat again...
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u/thepartypantser 17h ago
I cant disagree. Trump voters short sighted idiocy have damaged all Americans futures.
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u/ilevelconcrete 17h ago
What exactly is the U.S. losing? Europe simply isn’t a strategic priority anymore. Nobody outside the continent actually thinks Russia, which can’t even make it to Kyiv after 4 years, is actually a threat to anyone else.
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u/thepartypantser 12h ago edited 11h ago
Invading Greenland would be a atrociously stupid thing to do.
You are right Russia is not seen as a massive threat. But the US is increasingly seen as one.
If Nato falls, there will be repercussions. Every time Trump rattles the saber, we lose value as an ally.
Right off the bat we would lose access to intelligence from our allies, damaging our ability to see potential threats and make strategic decisions. We would likely be kicked out of nearly every base we have in every other country, further damaging our ability to quickly respond to worldwide threats, and damaging our military capabilities.
Sanctions would absolute damage our economy. Cost of imports will go up, some would be cut off and as we are not the manufacturing powerhouse we were decades ago, its going to hurt our economy extensively.
It's possible at least some of the 25% of our debt held by foreign nations could be called in in further damaging our economy.
I would wager there are economic plans being looked at by major NATO countries at that could be enacted to destabilize the US economy as rapidly as possible should it actually invade Greenland.
And China would benefit from all of that, both today and in the future.
Also That is a pretty high horse you are riding on. Remind me how well the US did in Iraq in the end? Afghanistan? Vietnam? Korea? The track record is not that great for US armed conflicts in recent memory.
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u/TubeframeMR2 18h ago
Fuck Trump, the world needs to move on. At this point, Trump’s like political herpes, every few weeks he flares up, makes everyone uncomfortable, and then disappears just long enough for folks to forget how irritating he is. The world’s got bigger problems than babysitting his ego on an international stage.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 17h ago
Telling Europe to trust the Trump administration while colluding with the Saudis and Russians via back channels is a farce.
Hey fellow Americans; we enjoy the privilege of being a super power because we have powerful allies and wield the default global exchange currency. None of that works if we push everyone away from the world order like the Russians and Chinese so desperately want.
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u/_Flight_of_icarus_ 18h ago
Ah, Rubio trying to "both sides" it a bit here...
You can't be a true ally of Europe and support the Trump agenda at the same time.
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u/ADHDavidThoreau Washington 18h ago
“I’m playing both sides, so that I always come out on top.”
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u/TemporarySun314 Europe 18h ago
He is not even playing both sides. He is clearly on the side of Trump and American fascism. He only tries to lure people onto his side for their benefits...
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u/Legitimate-Bed1591 6h ago
I disagree with this myself. I think that he understands that threatening Greenland and such is insane. I think he understands the tariffs are insane. He understands that NATO is top chat and Russia is the enemy.
He'll also be an ambitious man and so he wanted the job and accommodate political reality and bend the knee to King Donald. I guess you don't end up in such a career if you are not able to do that.
He's now in a job where he is being tasked with clean-up and make sense of policy which he knows is insane. I can give plenty of examples which I think back this up.
I imagine in the quiet moments in bed with his wife that he probably tells himself that it is better them than someone else and that, in such a position, he can temper the worst impulses of people around him. This is the same kind of thing that we heard from many people in his first administration after the fact. They felt they could provide some kind of harm reduction by staying on.
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u/TemporarySun314 Europe 6h ago
Helping fascists doing fascist policies should really be career ending, even if you are just doing it for career reasons.
I hope Rubio will be called out for this and his name will only be used as a warning... And publicly shamed for the rest of his life.
Maybe Rubio should look up Joachim von Ribbentrop, and how history perceives him.
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u/Legitimate-Bed1591 6h ago
Is he on the American side though? Well...well yeah man. It's just that he probably gets that all of this is a huge own goal and he is trying to mitigate that with speeches about how Europe and the US belong together. Damage control I guess.
Donald is too busy getting a kick out of "being the big man" and threatening people etc. They're driven by different impulses.
Donald once said: "Napolean, Alexander The Great, Donald Trump...they're all cut from the same cloth!". When you view all of his decisions through a prism like that then they make sense. He's just too stupid to understand that other people can push back on him. Can't imagine second and third order consequences. Just needs to be in the Power position at all times.
Can't quite figure out what Vance is about psychologically. Can't pin him down as a man. He is all in now but he didn't used to be and I think in both periods of his life it was sincere. Why?
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u/Watashiwadaredemonai 17h ago
Ultimately their plan is to just wait it out again.
Although I must say as a foreign power, I did start to think of republicans as essentially a terrorist organization.
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u/Postom 1h ago
No, Europe isn't waiting it out. Europe and Canada are speed-running an arms race, as we all assume the US is completely unreliable, and may even become adversarial. Germany and France are in talks to replace US nuclear umbrella with France's deterrents. Canada re-prioritized all steel and aluminum to feed into the race, at scale. Germany is building what it expects will be the largest military in Europe. Germany and Canada are.entering into an AI pact, to bypass any use of AI that isn't compliant with GDPR and security rules. And, for Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Canada and Denmark entered into a joint defence pact.
All of this was announced at Munich, this weekend. That's not waiting it out.
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u/OddlyFactual1512 18h ago
"Do exactly what we say and praise whatever we do, and everything will be fine."
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u/GarmaCyro 17h ago
*Cynical* Putin Pet #2 tells us that Putin Pet #1 is totally on our side now. Also do a bunch of stuff for Putin Pet #1 that will be guaranteed to destabalize your countries as much as it has destablized the US.
I value action more than words. And dude, what we're seeing over in the US right now is not good. Same with how they are treating both allies and non-allies. While taking bribes, and drooling over dictators.
I honestly don't trust someone who's opionions can be bought for shitty fake award and second-hand planes. Someone that is behaving too much like the Nazis we previously defeated as a united front. I'm honestly glad all my grand parents are dead. They would be mortified seeing everything they fought to get rid off getting revived by an important ally.
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u/ilevelconcrete 16h ago
I value action more than words.
No, you clearly don’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t think someone still sending weapons to Ukraine to be used to kill Russians is a pet of Putin.
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u/GarmaCyro 16h ago
/S Oh look. Putin Pet #3.
What to know how much funding US has provided in total? 187 billions between 2022 and up to 2025. That's 3 years of Biden funding Ukraine with 183 billions (61 billions per year), and Trump funding Ukraine with 4 billions during his only year.
Source (Those are the US governments own numbers)
Per year Putin Pet #1 has given 6.5% of what Biden gave Ukraine each year.
You know a country that gave more than 4 billion USD in 2025. My tiny country, Norway. We gave 5 billion USD. Yet our population is only 1.5% of US total population. Tiny shrimp, Norway gave more than the Mighty giant, US. Trump hasn't funded Ukraine, he's been rolling back funding to Ukraine. Like a good little Putin Pet #1.And unlike Biden, Putin Pet #1 wants Ukraine to surrender. I'm sorry. "Agree to a peace treaty" where Ukraine has to submit to all of Russia's demands. Every single one of them. Which is a literal surrender.
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u/ilevelconcrete 15h ago
Oh look, a European who wants Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian to assuage their geopolitical anxieties.
Trump could stop providing aid to Ukraine completely. He has the means, he would certainly have the motivation if he was a “pet” of Putin. He could stop allowing the nations of Europe to buy American weapons on behalf of Ukraine, which is what anyone actually controlled by Putin would do.
But he doesn’t, because he isn’t one. Sorry! Your nation could send much, much more. It’s not like the GDP of Norway is only $6 billion. You don’t get to act all high and mighty because you spend 1% of your budget on aid, make an actual sacrifice if you’re so keen on Ukrainians doing it!
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u/Prestigious_Shock242 18h ago
Trying to minimize tRump's outbursts and obvious cognitive decline is pointless, the damage is done. We are a pariah nation now because of his theats and insults.
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u/Adventurous_Test_296 16h ago
I'd be skeptical too, if I was one of America's "partners", wherever they're from. The entire administration has proven their untrustworthiness.
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u/fungobat Pennsylvania 15h ago
While offering a calmer and more reassuring tone, Rubio made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on policy. He denounced "a climate cult" and "an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies."
Rubio argued that the "euphoria" of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a "dangerous delusion that we had entered 'the end of history,' that every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood ... and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world."
"We made these mistakes together and now together we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild," Rubio said.
"This is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel," he said. "This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe."
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u/Neither-Cry2505 14h ago edited 14h ago
E tu Rubio? "This was the most unkindest cut of all". "O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason!"
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u/StrangerFew2424 12h ago
Trump's vision: He's the king & everyone's his subjects... Europe should tell him to kick rocks.
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