Lord Mandelson has surfaced with a brutal assessment of Keir Starmer‘s response to the Trump ‘revolution’.
The former US ambassador, who was ousted over historic ties to Jeffrey Epstein, lashed out at Europe’s ‘impotence’ in the face of a changed world.
Writing in the Spectator, the New Labour architect suggested ‘histrionics’ about Mr Trump’s threats to take over Greenland were evidence of the ‘lazy’ way Western leaders viewed the ‘MAGA’ movement.
Lord Mandelson dismissed concerns about sovereignty and Nato‘s future as ‘performative’ and said there needed to be a ‘considerably beefed-up role’ for America in the territory to counteract threats from Russia and China.
‘It took President Trump deciding it was in America’s interests to helicopter Nicolas Maduro to face justice, and this is the awful truth that Europe’s political leaders are coming to terms with: Trump has the means and the will and they don’t,’ the peer wrote.
‘Europe’s growing geopolitical impotence in the world is becoming the issue now, and histrionics about Greenland is confirming this brutal reality.’
Lord Mandelson has surfaced with a brutal assessment of Keir Starmer’s response to the Trump ‘revolution’
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron (pictured yesterday) signed a statement along with Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark declaring they will ‘not stop defending’ Greenland
Lord Mandelson said the ‘future of Greenland is being misunderstood’.
‘Trump is not going to ”invade” it. He doesn’t need to. He’s already there,’ he said.
‘What will happen is that the threats to Arctic security posed by China and Russia will crystallise in European minds, performative statements about ”sovereignty” and Nato’s future will fade, and serious discussion will take over.
‘Together, the US, Denmark and other allies will address how the Arctic region is properly secured with a considerably beefed-up role and status and military deployment by America.’
Lord Mandelson argued that the ‘rules-based system’ has ‘effectively not existed’ for a ‘long time’.
He dismissed the idea that Mr Trump had ‘single-handedly broken up the postwar global order’ – suggesting that the rise of China was behind that change.
‘I am afraid I don’t think, even now, that European leaders have adjusted to the revolution under way,’ Lord Mandelson said.
‘They are guilty of a lazy interpretation of ‘America First’ to mean ‘America Alone’, even though President Trump is expending huge effort to end the war in Ukraine and has acted in a decisive way to halt the conflict in Gaza, where he remains committed to the vital ‘phase two’.
The former Cabinet minister said Europe was ‘transfixed by the Truth Socials coming out of the White House but without following the arguments underpinning them’.
‘They would do better to ask themselves why the US is making an adjustment and how they, as America’s allies, can mitigate its consequences and offset the transfer of American resources elsewhere,’ he added.
A White House statement said ‘utilising the US military is always an option’ and warned Donald Trump’s determination to control Greenland is ‘not going away’
‘In other words, how and when the piggybacking stops and Europe starts assuming its full military and financial responsibilities beyond fine words – which is what they amount to in most cases at the moment, notwithstanding the future ‘military hubs’ promised by Britain and France to Ukraine.’
Lord Mandelson said Europe’s need for ‘hard military power and reliable diplomatic muscle’ was currently being ‘masked by outpourings about a sheriff president who does not follow conventional practice or a traditional diplomatic rule-book’.
‘Europe’s leaders need to ask themselves whether this is because it is intrinsically wrong for a US president to take powerful, unilateral actions or because Trump and his playbook trigger a particular and instinctive allergic reaction in Europe’s capitals,’ he added.
