In Europe, there’s relief over a strong standard-bearer facing Trump. A Kamala Harris win would represent continuity, with some potential curveballs.
With Kamala Harris’ formal anointing as the Democratic nominee for president, European allies are relieved by what they see as a diminishing threat of another Donald Trump presidency — but an undercurrent of anxiety remains.
A scant six weeks ago, when the former president was riding high in the polls after a triumphal Republican convention, the nonstop topic at high-level European gatherings was how to go about “Trump-proofing” institutions that he had often blasted as ineffectual or branded as outright adversaries — including NATO and the European Union.
With Democrats’ rapid consolidation behind Harris after President Biden’s withdrawal from the race, the near-frantic tone of such discussions has largely abated, and the conversation has turned to what to expect from a U.S. administration led by her.
Analysts say European leaders and policymakers generally believe that if Harris prevails in November, there would be crucial continuity in relationships with the continent’s major blocs — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU — as well as a continuation of cordial bilateral bonds cemented by Biden.
And the assessment on this side of the Atlantic is that a victorious Harris would keep throwing U.S. weight behind a key European project — aiding Ukraine in its fight against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
But beyond those broad parameters, things get a bit more uncertain.
First of all, no one wants to be overconfident about the prospect of a Harris victory. Trump’s tumultuous presidency was something of a trauma for the closest U.S. allies in Europe, starting with his shock election in 2016. During his tenure, he projected indifference to the notion of shared transatlantic interests and values, and took a strikingly deferential tone toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s highly transactional view of international alliances has been on ample display during the current campaign against Harris. “They don’t do anything for us,” he said at a North Carolina rally on Wednesday, referring to U.
