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German magazine Der Spiegel released its latest issue, with a cover featuring Donald Trump on a middle finger, flipping the bird. It comes just days after the USA angered Europe by walking away from the Iran nuclear deal. Reaction from EU officials is still pouring in since Trump announced his decision earlier this week, so it didn’t take long before the cover was retweeted by French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud. On Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also had a few words to say to Der Spiegel about Washington pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying:
The USA has shown very little willingness to take the arguments of its allies seriously. The decision has already taken hold of transatlantic ties.
Der Spiegel’s tone on the cover was matched inside the magazine, with an editorial titled “Time for Europe to Join the Resistance”. The article said that US President Donald Trump is “only proficient in destruction”, referencing his pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement. The self-explanatory cover came just one day after German Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel said that Europe can no longer count on the USA, and must take matters into its own hands. French President Emmanuel Macron, who agreed with Merkel, echoed that sentiment, “Something should be done”.
Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal despite America’s three biggest allies (the UK, Germany, and France) putting forth their best efforts to convince him to stick with the landmark agreement signed in 2015. However, the US President walked away from what he deems the “worst deal ever negotiated” on Tuesday. Much like Merkel and Macron, the decision also left EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to say that the USA must be replaced as a leader on the international stage because it has “lost vigour”. As for Merkel, it seems that Trump’s Iran decision didn’t entirely fuel her statement. Last year, she made a similar statement following a G7 summit, when attendees of the meeting were unable to convince the US President to stay with the Paris Climate Agreement. She said at the time:
The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days.
12 March 2018
RT
Voices from Russia 
European Foreign Policy Chief Frederica Mogherini: Trump “Systematically Destroying and Dismantling Everything”
Tags: diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Donald Trump, EU, European Union, France, Frederica Mogherini, Germany, Iran, Iran's nuclear program, political commentary, politics, Sanctions against Iran, UK, United Kingdom, United States, USA
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As the EU increasingly faces an atmosphere of disunity and disruption, Trump’s ditching the JCPOA only threatens to make matters worse for Europe. However, that’s not all, EU foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini noted that it also increasingly isolates America. She pointed up, “no country’s big enough to face this world alone”. It seems that Trump’s hubris is big enough to try it.
Politico reported that on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the Iran nuclear deal can survive without US support. Speaking at a State of the Union conference, Mogherini said she received assurances from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that his country would stand by the agreement, despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw and reimpose sanctions on Iran earlier this week. Mogherini said:
The Italian diplomat will meet with the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and the UK… the three European powers that brokered the nuclear deal along with the EU, USA, China, and Russia… in Brussels Tuesday to discuss the future of the agreement. The European diplomats will also meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Europeans seek to demonstrate that they can still deliver most of the economic benefits they promised Tehran in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons programme and allowing a robust system of international inspections, as well as persuade European companies active in Iran not to abandon their deals out of fear of penalties from the USA. In her speech, Mogherini took several shots at Trump, though she didn’t mention the US President by name, saying:
Europe has gone along with just about everything that America has asked for, and sometimes, even volunteering. Whether it’s been war or economic sanctions, Europe was gung-ho about showing some solidarity with American interests in the hopes of scoring some brownie points with the Americans, both over the business of security, as well as obtaining America’s interest in joining in on European market initiatives. However, it hasn’t all been quite as rosy as was hoped. Europe hasn’t been paying attention to America’s belligerent and narcissistic ways. America has overthrown régimes, waged wars and slighted international law whenever it suits them. Why, then, should they be expected to be a reliable partner in anything, when they have such a long history of breaking their word and violating their own principles? Now, it seems, Europe is finally starting to see what their unfaithful partner is really about.
13 May 2018
Frank Sellars
The Duran
http://theduran.com/trump-destroying-and-dismantling-everything-says-eu-foreign-policy-chief/
Editor:
Trump has three options, none of them good.
The last is the most likely outcome. However, Trump is used to “firing” those who displease him, but he has no control over foreign figures. He can’t simply fire and humiliate them like a character on The Apprentice. That’s where the danger comes in. Trump is juvenile, narcissistic, and sadistic. When vexed, he tends to strike out (I should mention that as bad and incoherent as Trump is, Hillary is far worse… her feral and grasping narcissism makes his self-centred greed seem innocent and childlike in comparison). As POTUS, he has control of the “bomb button”. If that doesn’t scare you…
BMD