Defiant EU readies itself for Trump presidency

BRUSSELS — European Union nations bracing for the looming Donald Trump presidency showed defiance Monday in the face of the president-elect’s stinging comments on everything from NATO and German cars to the crumbling of the EU itself, raising the prospect of an unprecedented breach in transatlantic relations.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the U.S. president-elect’s view that NATO was obsolete and his criticism that European allied members aren’t paying their fair share had “caused astonishment.”

Mr. Trump also said Britain’s decision to leave the 28nation European Union would “end up being a great thing,” and he predicted that other countries would also leave. Though Mr. Trump said that he was indifferent to the bloc’s fate, he also said he was committed to European defense.

At a meeting of EU ministers, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the best response to such comments was simple — “it is the unity of the Europeans.”

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted: “We Europeans have our fate in our own hands.”

“I’m personally going to wait until the American president takes office, and then we will naturally work with him on all levels,” she told reporters.

French President Francois Hollande was even more outspoken in his defiance.

Europe “has no need for outside advice to tell it what to do,” Mr. Hollande said at a ceremony for outgoing U.S. ambassador in Paris Jane Hartley.

“Europe will always be willing to pursue trans-Atlantic cooperation, but it will base its decisions on its interests and its values,” he added.

Some EU officials fear Mr. Trump’s frequent, often acerbic Twitter postings might be the prelude to a caustic presidency after Friday’s inauguration.

Mr. Trump’s views were in an interview published Monday with German daily Bild and The Times of London.

Mr. Trump indicated he was indifferent to whether the EU stays together or not, a sharp break from the Obama administration, which encouraged British people to vote to remain in the EU in the June referendum.

“I believe others will leave … I do think keeping it together is not gonna be as easy as a lot of people think,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

The British exit from the EU would “end up being a great thing,” he said.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it’s “very good news that the United States of America wants to do a good free trade deal with us and wants to do it very fast.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm for Brexit was seen as putting considerably more pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, who is preparing to give a major speech today in which she is expected to announce that Britain will make a clean break from the EU and not seek to remain “half-in, half-out.”

Mr. Trump was less kind to German industry officials, saying car manufacturers including BMW could face tariffs of up to 35 percent if they set up plants in Mexico instead of in the U.S. and try to export the cars to the U.S.

Such tariffs would make the American auto industry “worse, weaker and more expensive,” Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s economy minister, told Bild.

Whatever his goal, Mr. Trump’s comments were strong enough to make him the talk of the town in European capitals.