Trump and political instability

Anyone who thinks Trump’s bullying in Brussels is part of a campaign to reform NATO and the EU is seriously misinformed. Whatever their problems — and there are serious ones — Trump won’t solve them. What he is doing is creating political instability across Europe, and to the degree that he is successful, such instability favors a revenging right in Europe that for the moment has the wind at its back. If that were to happen, that is, if the right in Europe moves from the doorstep of power to capturing its citadels, more than supra-national institutions, like NATO and the EU, would be in the cross hairs of this anti-democratic, ultra-nationalist, authoritarian contagion.

To catch a glimpse of what Western Europe might look like in this event requires only a glance at what is happening in some of the Eastern European states, such as Poland and Hungary where authoritarian regimes have gained and consolidated power.