Narcissus in the Fog

On his first official visit to Europe since taking office, President Donald Trump spent just fourteen hours in Rome, attending Pope Francis’s funeral. After a few quick handshakes with nearby dignitaries, he rushed back to his plane, eager—according to his entourage—to arrive at his New Jersey golf course that very afternoon, a sacred ritual to which the president devotes all his weekends.

No tariffs. No NATO. No Gaza. No Iran. Not a single topic was even touched upon during this lightning visit.

None, except for the fifteen-minute meeting granted to Zelensky inside the basilica itself, just before the ceremony—images of which made headlines around the world. Emmanuel Macron did try to join them, but a third chair, momentarily pulled forward by a monsignor, was swiftly removed and pushed back against the wall after Trump brushed aside the unwelcome guest with a wave of the hand. A lip-reading expert working for London’s The Sun interpreted Trump’s words to his French counterpart as: “You are not in the right place here. I need you to do me a favor. You shouldn’t be here.” To which Zelensky reportedly added: “I’d like you to do that, but not like this.” The Élysée dismissed it as fake news.

In any case, there was no room for two Narcissuses in the basilica. Trump, who sees himself as ruler of the world, could hardly share his role as peacemaker. Macron, equally obsessed with his own image and desperate to claim a seat at the negotiating table, was left out. His consolation prize: a few images of his afternoon discussions with Zelensky in the splendid gardens of the Villa Bonaparte, residence of our ambassador to the Holy See.

This reality-TV diplomacy, from the Oval Office to St. Peter’s, would make Talleyrand and Metternich turn in their graves—not to mention de Gaulle and Kissinger.

And for what results?

Here, the mirror of our Narcissuses dissolves into a fog of murky waters. After one hundred days in office, Trump is paying the price for the chaos he himself unleashed, with a dramatic plunge in the polls. His all-out trade war is alarming markets and the Fed, forcing him to delay tariff hikes—except, for now, against China. His imperial designs on Canada, Panama, and Greenland are reviving the image of the “Ugly American.” Most glaringly, Trump has notched up no foreign policy victories. Worse still: he appears mired in Gaza, retreating in Iran, and having handed everything to Putin on Ukraine in exchange for nothing—except vague, temporary “truces” punctuated by brutal strikes on Ukrainian civilians.

Aboard the return flight, Trump even admitted that Putin was “stringing him along” and that he would need to “handle him differently.” But how?

Macron is already claiming he convinced Trump to “toughen” his stance on Moscow—a way of portraying himself at the center of the game, leading his “coalition of European volunteers.” The problem is, Europe is neither united nor able to replace the American military support—especially intelligence—granted to Ukraine.

Putin knows this, just as he knows that further U.S. sanctions are unlikely to affect an economy now entirely geared toward war.

What remains is the option of renewed U.S. engagement in the conflict, with the announcement of a new $60 billion military aid package, similar to the one under Biden. But it is doubtful that Trump—who has long condemned the war as Obama’s and “Sleepy Joe’s”—would plunge America back into a war he has vowed to end as soon as possible.

Hence the American plan for a ceasefire, in exchange for de jure recognition of Crimea as Russian territory and, this time, de facto recognition of the occupation of part of Donbas. A plan rejected by Zelensky—backed by Macron and Starmer—and dismissed by Putin as insufficient.

If nothing changes in the coming weeks, a weary Narcissus may well lose all interest and walk away, leaving the mess to the Europeans. Trump will, as always, spin his own version of events: “He tried everything, but what can you do if the belligerents insist on fighting?”

A nightmare scenario for Europeans—who, despite what Macron, Starmer, or Von der Leyen may say, are in no way prepared to replace their former protector. All they will have left is to try, through the fog, to discern the intentions of Narcissus.

Tribune VA – 30/4/25