That would certainly be a good way to play it.

But really- the EU doesn't want to alienate China too much, because the time could easily come when having China at their back is the only thing that saves them from being spit-roasted by a US/Russia alliance.

I guess, in the same sense that ones relationship with two hungry-looking men with their hands wrapped around suspicious bulges in their pockets, advancing on you from opposite ends of a dark alley and already arguing over who gets to keep your watch might be considered "volatile."

Right, but China is untrustworthy in a standard international wheeling and dealing sense, while Russia and the US are both direct, existential threats to the EU and its constituent nations.

Yes - they'd be best off avoiding entanglements with all three, but their very survival might depend on allying with China against an overtly hostile Russia and US.

I see no possibility that the EU will, if forced to choose, choose anyone other than China.

Russia and the US have both clearly signaled to the EU that they cannot be trusted. I see no reason why the EU would do anything other than believe them.

As opposed to the rest of the internet which does?

beautiful

One of Trump's favorite ridiculous descriptors. I'm sure that's not a coincidence.

Nobody tell him that when he says things like that, it doesn't make them look pathetic - it makes him look pathetic.

That pretty well sums it up.

I think the combination of losing the 2020 election, being hit with a slew of unflattering analyses and criminal convictions, then winning the 2024 election finally completely broke his brain, but it's a path he started down probably from pretty much his first day of conscious life.

I think it says everything that needs to be said that the left's reaction to disputes is to protest and maybe set some cars on fire, and the right's reaction is to (try to) kill people.

Ah... this is such a perfectly Trump story. The Onion couldn't have done a better job of it.

The fate of the western world has been placed in the hands of a man who's the emotional equivalent of a four-year-old competing for daddy's attention.

Is there any one quality that more of the people surrounding Trump share than being serial sex abusers?

I can't think of one.

So... Trump voters?