The White House meetings on August 18 between President Donald Trump and eight European leaders were extraordinary for a variety of reasons. For one, never had so many high-profile leaders visited the White House at once, and at such a pivotal moment. The pictures from the meetings, which included an Oval Office discussion, will almost assuredly feature in the history books. But what was even more extraordinary was that all of Trump’s guests – NATO’s General Secretary Mark Rutte, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky – left the meeting happy.
Just months ago, this would have seemed impossible. February’s Oval Office argument between Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance seemed to put paid to any sort of breakthrough. Trump administration and congressional criticisms of Europe’s draconian speech laws also made it seem unlikely that any happy handshakes would happen anytime soon between the leader of the Free World and the leaders of the Old.
What changed?
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