European leaders like Romanian President Nicos Dan have spent most of 2025 trying to figure out how to live with Donald Trump. Or worse, without him, writes "Politico".
Since the great violator of international norms returned to the White House in January, he has made it clear how little he actually cares about Europe - some of his key staff are openly hostile. The US president has cut financial and military aid to Ukraine, slapped tariffs on the European Union and criticized its leaders as "weak".
Now his administration is on a mission to interfere in European democracy to prop up "patriotic" parties and steer policy toward MAGA's anti-immigrant goals.
For leaders like the moderate Romanian president, the dilemma is always how much to embrace Trump's priorities - because Europe still needs America - and how much to resist his hostility to centrist European values. Is there still a true alliance across the Atlantic?
"The world has changed," Dan said. "We have moved - in a sense - from a moral way of doing things to a very pragmatic and economic way of doing things".
EU leaders understand this and are now focusing their attention on developing practical strategies to deal with the new reality of Trump's world, he noted. Centrists will have to take into account the concerted efforts of Americans to support their populist opponents on the right, as the United States seeks to change the direction of Europe.
Administration officials, such as Vice President Jay D. Vance, have condemned the annulled elections in Romania last year, and the White House's new National Security Strategy suggests that the United States will seek to adapt European policy to its anti-immigrant MAGA agenda.
For Dan, it is "normal" for American politicians to express their opinions. But it would be a "problem" if the US tried to "influence" politics "undemocratically" - for example, by paying media outlets in European countries "like the Russians do".
Weak Europeans
Relations with America are crucial for a country like Romania, which - unusually - remained open to the West during four decades of communist rule. On the eastern edge of the EU and bordering Ukraine, Romania is home to a large NATO base - soon to be the largest in Europe - as well as a US ballistic missile defence site. However, the Trump administration has announced the withdrawal of 800 US troops from Romania, which has caused concern in Bucharest.
Dan argues that Europe and the US are natural allies because they share more values than other regions of the world. He believes that the "right partnership" will be possible - "in the medium term". But for now, "we are in a sense in a transitional period where we need to understand each other better".
Dan's candid assessment reveals the extent of the damage done to the transatlantic alliance this year. Trump has brought danger to all aspects of the Western alliance - even restoring relations with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. Sometimes Europeans do not know how to react.
Does Dan believe that Trump was right when he said this month that European leaders are "weak"?
"Yes," there is "some" truth in Trump's assessment, the Romanian president confirmed.
"Europe can be too slow to make decisions. For example, it took months of arguments and a tense summit in Brussels last week, which ended at 3:00 a.m., to agree on a way to finance Ukraine. But - most importantly - even a divided EU ultimately made the "important decision", he pointed out.
This decision to borrow 90 billion euros from the EU's joint debt for the struggling Kiev will keep Ukraine fighting Putin for the next two years.
Waiting for peace
According to EU leaders who support the plan (Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will not participate), it makes a peace deal more likely because it sends a signal to Putin that Ukraine will not simply collapse if he waits long enough.
But Dan believes the end of the war is far away despite Trump's push for a ceasefire.
"I am more pessimistic than optimistic in the short term," he noted. Putin's side does not seem to want peace: "They think that peace in two, three months will be better for them than peace now. So they will fight harder - because they have some small progress on the ground".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a European Council summit last week that he wanted Trump to put more pressure on Putin to agree to a ceasefire. Does Dan agree? "Of course. We support Ukraine".
But Trump's "extremely powerful" recent sanctions on Russian oil companies "Rosneft" and "Lukoil" are already helping, he said.
Dan also welcomed Trump's commitment to peace and America's new openness to providing security guarantees to support a final agreement.
It is clear that Dan hopes that Putin does not get all of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, but he does not want to tie Zelensky's hands. "Any kind of peace in which the aggressor is rewarded in some way is not good for Europe and for the future security of the world," he stressed. "But the decision for peace lies entirely with Ukraine. They are suffering so much that we cannot blame them for any decision they make." Romania plays a key role as an operational hub for transferring supplies to neighboring Ukraine. With its Black Sea port of Constanta, the country will be vital for future peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in Romania and it is already working with Bulgaria and Turkey to demine the Black Sea, Dan said. Russian drones have violated Romanian airspace dozens of times since the start of the full-scale war, and a village on the Ukrainian border recently had to be evacuated after drones set fire to a tanker containing gas. Dan downplayed the threat. "We had several drones. We are sure they were not deliberately sent into our territory," he said. "We are trying to tell our people that they are not in any danger". Nevertheless, Romania is increasing its military spending to deter Russia.