The early returns on this administration point to an evolving youth movement within MAGA. Trump does not always need to be the center of attention. It is not always Trump who is espousing democratic values and nationalist ideals. PDJT seems comfortable sharing the spotlight. Now that is not to say that PDJT is shunning the spotlight. Trump’s recent trips to the Super Bowl and Daytona 500 kill that thought. However, there is no question PDJT is sitting back and allowing a younger generation to get some attention.
Let’s look at some examples.
Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State, did a tour of five Central American countries. Rubio’s first trip abroad drew attention to Central America, a region where China’s presence harms American interests.
The first stop on this tour, in Panama on Sunday, February 2, was the most closely followed. Trump had threated to take back the canal, claiming the neutrality treaty governing it had been violated by the presence of Chinese companies. As soon as Rubio got back on the plane, Panama announced its exit from the Chinese Belt and Road initiative.
In El Salvador, Rubio was feted by Bukele. Bukele even offered to take some of the illegal aliens that needed to be deported, for a price of course.
Next comes Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense. Hegseth spoke in Brussels and essentially lowered the boom on the EU. Step up or be left behind. Hegseth did this with clear language spoken honestly without rancor. In particular, Hegseth spoke to the fantasy that is Ukraine winning the war. The removal of the US from war activities is clearly present.
A durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. This must not be Minsk 3.0. That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.
Instead any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.
If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission. And they should not covered under Article 5. There also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact.
To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine.
To further enable effective diplomacy and drive down energy prices that fund the Russian war machine, President Trump is unleashing American energy production and encouraging other nations to do the same. Lower energy prices coupled with more effective enforcement of energy sanctions will help bring Russia to the table.
Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of NATO. As part of this Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.
Perhaps the most dramatic speech came from VP JD Vance. Vance blasted the EU elites with the truth that America is no longer interested in being an overlooked and unpaid security staff for the continent. In addition, Vance excoriated the EU elites for their retreat from liberty and free speech.
The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.
I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too.
Now, these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.
As it turned out Vance was just getting started.
Free speech, I fear, is in retreat and in the interests of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation. Misinformation, like, for example, the idea that coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China. Our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth. . .
The organisers of this very conference have banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations. Now, again, we don’t have to agree with everything or anything that people say. But when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them.
Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.
The audience was not amused. Forthright, honest dialogue is the last thing these people want. It threatens their very power structure. Not being able to control what appears in public discourse undermines all the carefully prepared narratives about how great it is to be under the thumb of Eurocrats.
If you have time, Vance’s 20-minute speech is worth listening to.
Trump will make America great again. But to keep it great will require young leadership (Vance is all of 40) to preserve it. I think this is part of Trump’s strategy to ensure the greatness of America after he leaves office..