Martin Holland<p>🇪🇺 is the prey 👇🏼</p><blockquote>Hostility to <a href="https://federation.network/tags/Europe" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Europe</a>, and the <a href="https://federation.network/tags/EU" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#EU</a> in particular, is where the various strands of a potential <a href="https://federation.network/tags/Maga-" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Maga-</a><a href="https://federation.network/tags/Putin" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Putin</a><span> front come together. The Russian and US presidents share a venomous resentment of the soft power that Brussels wields through the aggregation of many national markets into one trading bloc.<br><br>From </span><a href="https://federation.network/tags/Trump’s" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Trump’s</a> point of view, the <a href="https://federation.network/tags/EU" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#EU</a> is a wicked cartel, denying US farms and businesses their inalienable right to sell to millions of European consumers. For Putin, it is an enemy apparatus, part of the post-cold war western expansion that locked <a href="https://federation.network/tags/Russia" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Russia</a><span> out of its natural sphere of influence.<br><br>For both men, the idea of pooling sovereignty among democratic nations for mutual economic advantage is incomprehensible. To negotiate as equals with the EU – a flimsy paper entity without any tank divisions to call its own – is absurd and abhorrent. Their answer to soft power is to confront it with the hard stuff, connive in its dismemberment and share the spoils.</span></blockquote><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/12/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-europe-us-ukraine-moscow" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/12/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-europe-us-ukraine-moscow</a><p></p>