The relationship between Brussels and Washington has become icy, with President Trump behaving towards European US allies as the Roman emperors once did to their subjects in Rome. Only he personally makes decisions about who can and cannot do what and where. The EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is not even welcome at the negotiating table. Trump wants to speak to someone else. And who gets an audience at the White House? Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, with whom Trump has been flirting ideologically for years. The EU Commission in Brussels can talk, but Trump decides who represents Europe.
This blow to the EU Commission’s self-perception is a hard one, questioning its very existence. At the same time, Trump’s move undermines the authority of von der Leyen, as the only one authorized to speak for all EU member countries in international trade matters. The national parliaments of EU member states have already handed over their decision-making mandate in trade matters – and not only in this area – to the Commission in Brussels over a quarter of a century ago. Bringing this mandate back to the national parliaments should finally be on the agenda of the German parliament, but currently only one party is advocating for it, the AfD, which is therefore labeled as anti-European and as right-wing extremist.
Trump seems serious about ignoring the EU Commission as an institution that speaks for all EU states and negotiating deals individually with each member state. Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico have already shown active interest in this. In a recent phone call with Trump, Fico spoke about the possibility of a customs discount for Slovakian exports of automotive products, which play a significant role in the local economy.
Due to this unilateral action, Fico was publicly reprimanded by von der Leyen for half an hour on the phone. Now, Trump has banned von der Leyen from his negotiating table. Instead, the Italian Prime Minister is welcome. If this trend solidifies, it would mark the end of the European Union as a political project to create a centralized European state. The dream of creating a superpower “on par with the USA” would have to say goodbye to EU power politicians.
One can think about Trump as a person as one wants, but if he is serious about killing the EU grandeur, all European citizens should be grateful, because the highly dangerous political project of creating a centralized, military EU superpower without democratic control in the hands of an irresponsible political elite in Brussels would be a nightmare. The end of this would not automatically mean the end of the European Economic Community, which continues as part of the political EU treaty. We could go back to a Europe of nations and an independent policy that is no longer hatched in the murky Brussels backrooms but in the more transparent national parliaments.
On Wednesday, April 9, at exactly 6:01 a.m., the United States opened a new chapter in their escalating trade war. Every European product crossing the Atlantic is now subject to a 20 percent import tariff. Other countries are facing even higher tariffs: 24 percent for Japan, 25 percent for South Korea and dizzying rates of 54 to 104 percent for everything coming from China.
While Japan and South Korea have already made deals to negotiate the tariffs with specialized teams, Europe has until April 17 to beg for exemptions. And who does Brussels send to the heart of American power? Not Ursula von der Leyen, but Giorgia Meloni. It’s as if Trump himself is directing the puppet show and decides who can step onto the stage.
Trump seems to have a personal dislike for von der Leyen and sees her as a representative of European neoliberal globalists and Woke supporters.
On the other hand, there is chemistry with Meloni, as both share a dislike of Woke activism. Their ideological common ground as opponents of “globalism” and its organizations like WHO, WEF and other institutions that want to interfere in national decisions form the bridge that connects them.
Von der Leyen has never hidden her disdain for Trump. Unlike other German and Western politicians, she has not resorted to particularly hurtful insults. Most recently, she said on April 3, 2025, during a speech on Trump’s 20 percent tariffs on EU products:
“It seems there is no order in the chaos, no clear path through the complexity and the chaos that is created.”
The implication of “chaos” was likely interpreted in Washington as a dig at Trump’s leadership style. Her opposition to Trump goes back to his first term in office. She reminded of this during a speech in Berlin on November 18, 2021, at the Henry A. Kissinger Award ceremony, when she condemned Trump’s criticism of NATO. At the time, she said:
“I was shocked and deeply concerned about Trump’s statement in January 2017 that NATO was ‘obsolete.'”
Von der Leyen is still on paper the most powerful woman in Europe and for years she was the official voice of the political project “European Union” in which she, without opposition, i.e., with tacit approval of the elites of the large member countries, was able to take away more and more political responsibility from the national states and transfer it to Brussels.
Now she is watching from the sidelines as her and the power of the EU Commission crumble, after being declared unwanted in Washington and Meloni being invited instead. Nevertheless, she made a good face to “the bad game” and at least salvaged some of the facade of her authority by officially commissioning Meloni to travel to Washington in her place and give her her political blessing on her way.
All this says a lot about the state of the EU and its political unity. On April 17, the cameras in Washington will be focused on Meloni, not Brussels. What remains is the realization that the EU Commission is no longer the European contact person in Washington. Power is shifting, from Brussels back to the member states, initially timidly, but it is a crack in the dam.