After yesterday’s announcement of what United States President Donald Trump called the “biggest deal ever made,” European leaders are dismayed at how much the European Union caved in to Trump’s hardball negotiations.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who finalized the deal with America’s president at his golf resort in Scotland, said the deal would “bring stability. It will bring predictability.” She described Trump as a tough negotiator and told reporters that the 15 percent tariff on EU goods was “the best we could get.” Reuters titled its daily news briefing, “Europe Accepts Least-Worst U.S. Trade Deal.”

Other European leaders were upset:

• French Prime Minister François Bayrou said, “It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission.”
• Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban called von der Leyen a “featherweight” who had been “eaten for breakfast” by Trump.

Some details of the deal:

• The U.S. will impose a 15 percent tariff on most EU goods—less than the 30 percent Trump was threatening, but more than the 10 percent the EU hoped for. Steel and aluminum face a 50 percent tariff.
• The EU will invest an additional $600 billion in the U.S. in military equipment, pharmaceuticals, automotive and other arenas.
• The EU will purchase a staggering $750 billion in U.S. energy (oil, gas, nuclear fuel) over three years to reduce reliance on Russian energy. This massive jump would mean around 60 percent of EU energy imports come from the U.S. How this could be enforced is unclear: The EU Commission has no authority to tell private businesses where they buy their energy from.

The Telegraph’s headline was, “Trump Has Just Triumphed Over the EU.”

It will also deal a huge blow to sectors such automotives, luxury goods and pharmaceuticals, where Europe still enjoys some competitive advantages, crippling Germany’s already weak economy, and worsening France’s already critical budget crisis. And what did the EU get in return for all that? Absolutely nothing. …

Short of having to ship the Mona Lisa to Mar-a-Lago it is hard to see how it could have worked out better for President Trump. After two decades of relative economic decline, and with crushing taxes and regulation suffocating the life out of its industry, the EU is now too weak to stand up to the U.S. Its fragility has been painfully exposed—and this deal will only make it worse.

An insightful comment came from Clemens Fuest, president of German think tank the Ifo Institute: “The trade deal is a humiliation for the EU, but it reflects the imbalance of power. The Europeans need to wake up, focus more on economic strength, and reduce their military and technological dependence on the U.S. Then they can renegotiate.”

While stabilizing the $1.7 trillion trans-Atlantic trade relationship, this deal truly does showcase America’s leverage and Europe’s weakness. In particular it both highlights and cements Europe’s dependence on America’s military at a time when it is desperately trying to gain military independence. In its article “How the EU Succumbed to Trump’s Tariff Steamroller,” the Financial Times reports that this was a real pain point among European leaders during the negotiations:

Europe’s dependency on America’s security guarantee was a further argument against trade confrontation, especially for the bloc’s eastern and northern members. Fears that Trump would cut off weapons supplies to Ukraine, pull troops out of Europe, or even quit NATO overshadowed the talks, diplomats said.

This is a remarkable snapshot of America’s and Europe’s relative power positions right now. Biblical prophecy is clear that this arrangement is going to flip upside-down at some point. For years the Trumpet has watched for this to happen, and has drawn attention to a series of “wake-up calls” a sclerotic Europe has received—and to one degree or another, slept through.

Despite this defeat, Europe is already positioning itself to win the next round of trade war. It has been building a much stronger trade alliance with China to prevent having to capitulate to America in the future. This “mart of nations” is prophesied to succeed in freezing America out of world trade. This new U.S.-EU trade deal could be considered more of a tactical retreat for Europe, a recognition that now is not the right time to confront the United States economically. But prophecy shows it is far from being how things will conclude.

Britain will set up a new elite police squad, the policing minister revealed in a letter to lawmakers published yesterday. Considering the law enforcement crisis in the country, you would think this is good news. It isn’t. First, the problem:

• A government report this year said police are “overwhelmed” by common crimes like burglary, and criminals go unpunished. Police achieved positive outcomes (charges, summons or other resolutions) in only 11 percent of cases last year. In a third of the neighborhoods in England and Wales, police forces failed to solve even one burglary over the last three years.
• Airlines warn their passengers to hide their watches before walking on the streets of London. London is also the phone theft capital of Europe, and 40 percent of all Europe’s phone thefts happen in the United Kingdom.

So the police have great need for a new elite squad. But this group will focus on none of these problems. Instead it aims to “maximize social media intelligence.” It will be tasked with monitoring what people say online.

Seriously? Why?

Well, the government fears national unrest—and its fears are justified. Protests outside migrant hotels are spreading across the country. The trend began in Epping, where a migrant allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. How did police respond? They brought in pro-migrant counter-protesters and then lied about it. If you support a cause that authorities disapprove of, they will bring mask-wearing thugs to shut you down—or give the police themselves an excuse to step in.

The government has stirred up massive anger through its two-tired policing. Now it wants to use its new online squad to prevent that anger from exploding.

This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought.
—Nigel Farage, Reform Party leader

The book of Hosea, aimed directly at modern Britain, has some important warnings. “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people [or foreigners]; Ephraim is a cake not turned,” states Hosea 7:8. Importing a huge number of migrants may preserve certain statistical appearances, but inside, society has been burnt out. “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not” (verse 9).

God warns, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind ….” (Hosea 8:7). This could soon apply to Britain’s government. Our article “The Cause of Britain’s Migrant Crisis” has more.

IN OTHER NEWS

Netherlands: Israel is a “threatening state actor” to national security: The Dutch government’s new assessment of which countries are threatening its sovereignty lists Israel alongside Russia, Iran and Turkey as a country that aims to “control public opinion and political decision making.” Last year, coordinated mobs hunted down Israeli tourists visiting a soccer game in Amsterdam. When the Israeli government compiled a report on the attacks, it “was not shared through official channels with the Dutch government but was sent directly to specific politicians and journalists,” the new assessement complains. To label Israel a “threatening state actor” equivalent to Russia or Iran for this cause is ludicrous, especially considering that countries like China or Qatar, widely known to “control public opinion and political decision making,” are left off the hook. It highlights Europeans’ increasingly hostile attitude toward the Jewish state.

Netanyahu meets dubious “spiritual adviser”: In Jerusalem yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Paula White-Cain, senior adviser to the White House Faith Office, at a conference sponsored by American evangelical network Daystar Television. Netanyahu claimed Christians and Jews had “a partnership bonded in faith, in history, in tradition” and that common heritage in the Holy Land created a link between Israel and the wider Christian community. Netanyahu and Israel have been publicly attacked by prominent American conservative voices like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and others in the “MAGA base.” This isolationist wing sees Israel as a parasite that gets America sucked into foreign wars. But many evangelicals like White-Cain see much of Israel’s heritage as their heritage, and worth fighting for. Both communities have Trump’s ear. Netanyahu knows this and is probably trying to strengthen his bonds with the evangelical community to build support with Trump. The Trumpet expects the current administration to listen more and more to religious communities like evangelicals. Chapter 1 of our editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free book Great Again explains why.