When Donald Trump won the election last year, sage heads nodded and said: “Well, he is right that Europe should shoulder more of the burden of its own defence.” Now we know what that means – and the burden may be harder to bear than we thought.
For all Mr Trump’s coarseness, his authoritarianism and his fondness for dictators, no one could have predicted the viciousness of his attempt to humiliate Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. No one could have predicted his grotesque inversion of reality, accusing Mr Zelensky of “gambling with World War III” by being so reckless as to lead his people in fighting back against an unprovoked invasion.
