is the prey 
Hostility to #Europe, and the #EU in particular, is where the various strands of a potential #Maga-#Putin front come together. The Russian and US presidents share a venomous resentment of the soft power that Brussels wields through the aggregation of many national markets into one trading bloc.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/12/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-europe-us-ukraine-moscow
From #Trump’s point of view, the #EU is a wicked cartel, denying US farms and businesses their inalienable right to sell to millions of European consumers. For Putin, it is an enemy apparatus, part of the post-cold war western expansion that locked #Russia out of its natural sphere of influence.
For both men, the idea of pooling sovereignty among democratic nations for mutual economic advantage is incomprehensible. To negotiate as equals with the EU – a flimsy paper entity without any tank divisions to call its own – is absurd and abhorrent. Their answer to soft power is to confront it with the hard stuff, connive in its dismemberment and share the spoils.
The Guardian · A Trump-Putin pact is emerging – and Europe is its target
