Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was not the first European leader to cross the pond this week in search of answers from Donald Trump. But Zelensky’s visit, which culminated in a showdown with the president and vice president, was the most consequential.
The Oval Office meeting "revealed the confusion and emotion of the moment," writes the Hudson Institute's Mike Watson. "Vance grew incandescent when Zelensky, responding to the vice president's call for 'diplomacy,' rattled off examples of Vladimir Putin’s habit of breaking agreements. Zelensky publicly debated the merits of Trump's preferred negotiating strategy. And Trump alternated between condemning Zelensky for 'gambling with World War III,' Obama for insufficiently standing up to Putin, and the Democrats and media for accusing him of colluding with Russia. Shortly thereafter, Zelensky left the White House without signing the agreed-upon minerals deal."
Vance is no doubt eager to talk tough to Europeans. But Zelensky lost his composure, and as a result, "the transatlantic partnership is more unsettled now than it has been in decades," writes Watson.
As one prominent European conservative told me, Europe is facing a major dilemma: It wants to maintain its generous welfare state, transition its energy supply to renewables, and rearm quickly. But it cannot afford to do all three.
Like most of the Western world, Europe dramatically decreased its military spending after the Cold War. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Britain, France, and Germany spent more than 2.5 percent of GDP on defense. By 2014, Britain and Germany had roughly halved their spending as a share of their economy, and the French had cut theirs by a third.
Trump’s public downgrading of Europe—and his Oval Office spat with Zelensky—may have injected some realism into European politics. In January, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte told the European Parliament, "European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems, and we need only a small fraction of that money to make defense much stronger." Several high-ranking Europeans essentially announced they were abandoning the Green Deal this week.
One of the ironies of Europe's dilemma is that if Europe acts responsibly, the Trump team will be more willing to chip in on Europe's defense. But to do that, they'll have to choose which other goals to abandon, fast.
READ MORE: Europe’s Free Ride Comes to an End
Roughly a month ago, the Trump Justice Department pledged to "root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses" through a newly formed task force. Soon, the fine folks at Columbia University will receive a visit from its leaders.
The task force's head, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights Leo Terrell, on Thursday notified Columbia and nine other schools "that they may have violated federal law by failing to protect Jewish students and faculty from illegal discrimination," reports our Jessica Costescu. "Terrell said the multi-agency task force will meet with university leadership, impacted students and staff, local law enforcement, and community members to gather information about incidents" and weigh disciplinary actions.
In addition to Columbia, Harvard, Northwestern, UCLA, and UC Berkeley—all bastions of campus radicalism—will receive visits from Terrell and his team. At Columbia, it comes amid an ongoing, high-profile incident of campus anti-Semitism: Student radicals at Columbia and Barnard stormed a campus building and sent a security guard to the hospital just days ago.
Public safety officers quickly called the police, though Barnard leaders declined to allow officers to enter campus. The task force has its work cut out for it.
READ MORE: Trump Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism Announces Visits to Columbia, Nine Other Schools
John Morgan, founder of the prominent national law firm Morgan & Morgan, hosted glitzy fundraisers for Joe Biden and stood by the octogenarian even after his disastrous debate performance. He flew Frank Biden to the presidential inauguration in 2021 on his private jet. And, bizarrely, his firm has worked for red states like Kansas and Iowa on trial cases.
Kansas attorney general Kris Kobach fired Morgan's firm from such a case in March 2023, saying its performance "was not up to what we expected." He then made a standard request, asking the firm for all of the records it had compiled while working on the case. Morgan's firm "stonewalled the request," citing "products we are not returning in the form of spreadsheets, deficiency notes, and transcripts," emails obtained by our Chuck Ross show.
"The revelation comes amid a rough patch for the Florida-based Morgan & Morgan, which handles cases ranging from slip and fall accidents to dog bites to environmental cases," writes Ross. "Last month, a federal judge fined three Morgan & Morgan attorneys for citing fake cases generated by an AI chatbot as part of a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart.
"The ethics concerns and political leanings could raise red flags for other Republican states and municipalities in business with Morgan & Morgan."
Away from the Beacon:
- The Trump State Department approved $3 billion in bombs, weapons, and bulldozers to Israel, citing an "emergency" need that waives congressional review. Buckle up, Hamas.
- The Washington Post has lost more than 75,000 subscribers since Free Beacon Man of the Year Jeff Bezos dared to direct his paper's opinion section to champion freedom and capitalism. Once they start their righteous editorializing, we have no doubt sensible Americans will find their way back to a once great—and, hopefully, soon to be great again—American newspaper.