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For some of America’s allies, it’s time to bet on the other guy.
European diplomats and officials have described their shock at President Joe Biden’s faltering, error-strewn public performances and revealed they have already started reaching out to Donald Trump.
With his poll numbers already in decline, Biden is under mounting pressure from his own supporters to step aside in favor of a younger candidate like Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump at November’s presidential election.
First, there was Biden’s stumble at the presidential TV debate last month, in which he lost his train of thought, triggering a wave of soul-searching among Democrats and others who worry what a new Trump term will bring.
Then, on Thursday, came Biden’s long press conference at the close of the NATO summit in Washington, during which he insisted he was fit enough to serve another term and the best person to beat Trump. When Biden introduced Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” there was an audible gasp among Europeans in the room.
One of those present texted POLITICO: “OMFG.”
A second added: “The European leaders froze onstage, although they did their best to keep smiling and clapping. Nobody mentioned it with the Biden team afterward.”
Another senior European diplomat in D.C. said colleagues have been busy reaching out to those who are likely to join the Trump team for months — setting up meetings, attending the same events, and inviting Trump’s allies to dinner.
Asked if there’s any pressure back home not to do this due to Trump’s polarizing image, one diplomat said: “No. We would be failing our duty if we were not trying to build connections with his people now.”
The Trump outreach has accelerated, another diplomat said, and predates Biden’s latest gaffes. “It’s been going on for more than a year,” the person added. Key European officials have been addressing conservative think tanks in order to get the message on Ukraine across to the Trump-supporting audience, the person said.
The NATO summit marked the first meeting of Biden and new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reaffirm the so-called “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States. Even Brits were shocked and dismayed by the president’s apparent frailty.
“It’s insane,” one British official said, giving a personal opinion. “All their messages at least to the election will be drowned out with coverage about his health and abilities. And it’s becoming a laughing stock around the world.”
“What will happen next?” the official asked. “Could he order an armed forces strike without meaning to and land himself in international court pleading some kind of mental disorder?”
Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador in Washington, has led outreach efforts with members of Trump’s team and senior MAGA Republicans.
The embassy has been a conduit between both major U.K. political parties and figures they believe will take part in a potential second Trump administration.
Senior British diplomats in Washington are now confident they have identified the right MAGA Republican strategists and representatives on Capitol Hill who actually have the ear of Trump.
A person close to Starmer’s Downing Street said the British embassy is far better prepared now than in 2016, when it made very little preparation for the possibility Trump would win the presidency.
“A great job has been done by Karen Pierce and her team,” the person said. “They have not repeated the mistakes of 2016.”
There is alarm, too, in Germany.
“It is now clear that Joe Biden sticking to his candidacy will only help Trump,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, a prominent Christian Democrat lawmaker on the Foreign Affairs Committee in Berlin. “It can only be hoped that the Democrats will find a way for Joe Biden to withdraw while saving face and that Kamala Harris, for example, will become the Democrats’ frontrunner.”
“I am concerned about the domestic political divide in the United States and the potential impact of Donald Trump’s election victory on transatlantic security and democratic institutions in the U.S.,” Kiesewetter said.
