George Friedman, founder of Geopolitical Futures, said he personally finds Trump unpleasant as a person - but finds the Europeans no less unpleasant, just more polite. Any American president, he argued, would be doing the same thing right now.
Friedman offered this assessment on the Geopolitical Futures podcast, analyzing the aftermath of the 2026 Munich Security Conference, "Hvylya" reports.
"I don't like the politeness behind which lies a fundamental aggression - an aggressive assertion of rights to help from a foreign state that carried this burden for 80 years," the analyst declared. Europeans, he said, create the impression that the problem lies not with circumstances but with the United States.
Friedman noted that the unwillingness of European leaders to acknowledge the legitimacy of America's withdrawal from Europe amounts to "a conscious refusal to accept reality." He conceded, however, that perhaps only a president "deeply unpleasant as a person" could break the established norm. Mario Draghi has echoed this concern, warning that European fragmentation serves Washington's interests.
"Different kinds of unpleasant behavior. One very polite, the other very rude. But each in the interest of its own region or country," Friedman concluded. In the same podcast series, Friedman also dismissed the idea of a "middle powers" coalition as a viable counterweight.