Doug Sheridan: Trump is Off to a Good Start - For Europe

Europe’s “leaders” at the 2024 G7 gathering.

[Note: Doug Sheridan is a keen energy analyst and writer who posts commentaries on LinkedIn each day. I read him on a regular basis and, if you are on LinkedIn, you should read him, too.]

Joseph Sternberg writes in the WSJ, Trump's second term is off to a good start—for Europe. He's already created enormous political and economic opportunities for Europe if politicians have the wit to seize their chance. The Trump admin is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate, scrapping Biden-era EV mandates and attempting to ramp up US oil and gas production.

The first instinct of European politicians and their media is to interpret these steps as affronts to the European Union. Which they are. Trump's abandonment of global climate agreement is a strong signal that DC doesn't care about an issue Europeans have come to understand in quasi-religious terms. The promised drilling and new ICE cars adds insult to this injury.

Note, however, that Trump at least isn't perpetuating the far bigger affront Biden committed against Europe—lying to them. Biden acted as though there were a political consensus in America in support of the policies Europeans liked, when there was obviously none. To wit, he rejoined the Paris climate deal despite the Senate's refusal over many years to ratify it.