Vice President Mike Pence went out of his way on Monday to reassure European Union leaders that the United States will continue its support of the transnational union. At a press conference, with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, at his side, Pence said:
The president did ask me to come here to Brussels — to the home of the European Union — and deliver an additional message. So today it’s my privilege on behalf of President Trump to express the strong commitment of the United States to continued cooperation and partnership with the European Union.
Whatever our differences, our two continents share the same heritage, the same values, and above all the same purpose: to promote peace and prosperity through freedom, democracy and the rule of law and to those objectives we weill remain committed.
Tusk likely experienced a sigh of relief. He told the New York Times that he asked Pence buntly in a private meeting “whether the Trump administration was committed to maintaining an international order based on rules and laws; whether Mr. Trump was committed to NATO and to ‘the closest possible trans-Atlantic cooperation’; and whether Europe could count ‘as always in the past, on the United States’ wholehearted and unequivocal — let me repeat — unequivocal support for the idea of a united Europe?’”
Answering these questions for the Times, Tusk said: “In reply to these three matters, I heard today from Vice President Pence three times ‘Yes’! After such a positive declaration, both Europeans and Americans must [now] simply practice what they preach.”
The timing of Pence’s visit over the weekend, first to Munich on Saturday to speak at the NATO Security Conference and reaffirm the U.S. support of that alliance, and then on to Brussels on Monday, was propitious. Earlier in the week, concerns about Trump’s commitment to both entities were expressed at the World Government Summit in Dubai. Despite Trump’s protests to the contrary, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed the need for a global government:
In a world in which everything is global, in which the problems are global — from climate change to the movement of people — there is no way countries can do it by themselves. We need global responses, and global responses need multilateral institutions able to play their role.
Of course, if anyone doubts that Guterres and his fellow internationalists who met in Dubai really want to submerge the sovereignty of nations into a one-world government, the name of their confab — the World Government Summit — provides a good clue!
Similar allusions to Trump’s threats to internationalism were voiced by China’s head of its Communist Party, Xi Jinping:
Globalism certainly creates some problems that we all need to solve together. But what should really scare us is a [leader like Trump] not willing to live up to the challenge.
Hopes were high that Trump would fulfill his campaign promises, including ending participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its sister agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and holding NATO members’ feet to the fire. Promised Trump: “The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense. If not, the US must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.”
He promised to withdraw from the Paris Agreement which was confirmed by Myron Ebell, a director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a member of Trump’s transition team for the EPA. Said Ebell last month: “The U.S. will clearly change course on climate policy. Trump has made it clear that he will withdraw from the Paris Agreement.”
Trump also threatened to pull billions in U.S. funding to UN climate change programs, and gave Brexit supporters great encouragement when he met with UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the primary leader in the movement in England.
Is Pence speaking only for himself? Or do his remarks signal a radical change in policy for the Trump administration? Is this a capitulation to globalist forces that continue to populate vital positions of influence in the new Trump administration? Are Pence’s words just meant to sooth concerns and smooth ruffled globalist feathers? If they represent a major policy change, then what about Brexit? Do they encourage those still working in the United Kingdom to stay in the EU, while undermining the vote to leave last fall?
More darkly, is Pence telegraphing his allegiance to the New World Order in the event Trump is no longer president? Are these words an “insurance policy” for insiders that Pence will not overturn the apple cart should he become president?
Trump will need to complete the formal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, cut off the funding to the UN agency promoting (mostly with American taxpayer dollars) policies concerning “climate change,” push NATO to fulfill its financial obligations, actively support Brexit, and step away from the seemingly unlimited and eternal support for the EU that Pence provided globalists on Monday. Only then will U.S. citizens who support national sovereignty be able to breathe again, believing that their newly elected president means what he says — Pence’s words to the contrary notwithstanding.
Photo of Vice President Pence: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
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