Tăpălagă (G4Media): Why Trump and Vance’s America is no longer the ally Europe and Romania can rely on, but an enemy

Europe and particularly Romania are going through dramatic moments these days. The military disengagement of the United States in Europe, explicitly announced by the Defence secretary no later than Wednesday, was followed by the apparent support given to populist and extremist forces by the American Vice President, JD Vance, present Friday at the Munich Security Conference. It must be emphasized that the support given by the new Administration in Washington to European extremist forces has clearly become state policy, after Elon Musk’s involvement in supporting the far right in Germany, AFD, according to a news article published by Dan Tăpălagă in G4Media.

Vice President Vance has harshly criticized the annulment of the elections in Romania, alleging that the decision might have been taken based on „flimsy suspicions” and „enormous pressure from continental neighbors”, suggesting that, in this way, democracy itself – a fundamental value of America and Europe – was trampled underfoot. On his turn, Musk criticized the cancellation of the elections in Romania in several posts on Twitter in December, reminded Dan Tăpălagă.

On Wednesday evening, there was another event with dramatic prospects for Europe: the phone conversation between Trump and Putin about the peace in Ukraine. The plan announced by the Defence secretary essentially envisages a peace without a US military presence, without the return of lost territories and without Ukraine in NATO. As Adrian Novac pointed out in his latest analysis, Trump considers the war in Ukraine a strictly European affair, without any reason of interest for the USA.

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At last, cutting the USAID funding is another sign that countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where the American investment in fragile democracies has been essential, can no longer count on US aid as long as the Trump Administration is in charge. The Make America Great Again movement supports, at most, extremist, populist, isolationist and nationalist politicians campaigning to Make Europe Great Again. In reality, European MEGA fanatics are fighting for the destruction of the European project as it now stands, as a large federation of states with powers delegated to Brussels, and for the return to strong and sovereign nation-states, argues Dan Tăpălagă.

It doesn’t look good at all. We have every reason to be concerned. Is the US abandoning Europe? Are we witnessing Yalta-two, a new division of spheres of influence? Will the „strategic partner” sacrifice us, will it leave us behind after the peace in Ukraine and the retreat with torches from Europe? It wouldn’t be the first time. They did it once after the Second World War, also after an alliance with the Russians. Now, Trump’s interest is to opportunistically ally with Putin in his big and real war with China. And the stake is, of course, Taiwan, where the heart of the American economy beats: the production of chips for Big Tech, underscores Dan Tăpălagă.

The fear that he would lose this war with China very likely pushes Trump now to look at the rare earths of Greenland, Ukraine or Canada, indispensable for the Big Tech industry. Without them, the new AI arms race is all but lost. In the name of technological progress, the entire world order, the international law have been blown up.

Also because the Big Tech’s influence on the new Administration, Trump is punishing Europe by imposing tariffs. Europe, for its part, is at open war with the American Big Tech, over-regulated, ultra-taxed and obstructed by Brussels. In the 12th hour, the Europeans have also realized that without massive investments in AI and giga-factories they will lose the fierce competition with China and the United States. The new investment direction was outlined at the Artificial Intelligence summit organized by Macron in Paris along with India, in which the French see Europe’s lifeline in terms of technology.

The real bad news for Romania is that it is completely vulnerable to the movements of tectonic plates shaking Europe: with an interim president, with a vulnerable and weak prime minister and government, with the prospect of new presidential elections in which the pro-Russian Călin Georgescu is the favorite, notes Dan Tăpălagă.

Vice President Vance defies the basic logic when he claims that if democracy can be destroyed with the help of digital advertising from a foreign country, „then your democracy wasn’t very strong to begin with”. In other words, according to the logic of the American vice president, the culprit is never the thief who enters through the window and destroys all the furniture inside, but the owner of the house for not protecting himself well enough.

Therefore, all democracies that fall under Russia’s hybrid attacks are to blame for not resisting, and the aggressor should eventually be congratulated for succeeding. This is what is happening, including in the case of the Ukraine-Russia peace. Trump says that Zelensky must make peace because „people are dying”, he does not say that Russia is slaughtering innocent Ukrainians after invading the country from the position of aggressor.

Even the conservative daily Wall Street Journal criticized in harsh terms Trump’s incomprehensible behavior towards Putin and the concessions made to Russia without asking for anything in return. „He must decide whether he wants an honorable peace in Ukraine or risks his own Afghanistan or Vietnam”, the WSJ wrote.

In Romania’s case, Vance also says an untruth, that the elections were cancelled based on „flimsy suspicions” and „enormous pressure from the continental neighbors”.

NATO’s Deputy Secretary General responsible for hybrid warfare affairs himself, James Appathurai, described Russia’s modus operandi in an interview with Euobserver: „What we saw in Romania are social media accounts left in a long hibernation, created there years ago, activated, unattributed, but used to influence the outcome.” Appathurai also said that Russia’s clandestine rigging of EU elections is more subversive than any overt foreign aid to pro-Russian populists.

We do not know how the restoration of the spheres of influence will end or if Romania will lose the bet with history again.

But what we can say clearly is that, without America, Romania and Europe will have a hard time dealing with Putin’s Russia. Kremlin experts warn that Putin will not stop there if Europe is abandoned by the Americans and, emboldened by US military disengagement, he will seek to restore the former Soviet Union (USSR), renamed Eurasia. We need America, just as Romania needs massive investments in the independent press and Europe needs massive investments in defence. But, certainly, neither Europe nor Romania can count on an America derailed from the democratic axis.

Trump’s America is no longer the ally that Europe and Romania can rely on, but our enemy. It is nonsense to support extremists in the name of democracy. They are the main threat. As long as the choice of the Trump administration is the far right of the AFD type in Germany, Simion or Georgescu in Romania, America is not looking for the good of these countries, but to politically bring them to their knees and undermine Europe from within, concluded Dan Tăpălagă.