European political elites are increasingly concluding that Donald Trump’s hard-line and assertive presidency is leaving them with fewer and fewer ways to defend their own interests. According to analyst Zoran Meter, writing for the Croatian outlet Geopolitika.news (GN), one of the remaining options may be a gradual rapprochement with Moscow.

Meter argues that the US president keeps Europe under constant pressure, wielding what is effectively a «Sword of Damocles." Washington, he notes, routinely invokes the idea of a «Russian threat» as a lever of influence, while at the same time preserving the option of direct agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Such bilateral deals, in Meter’s assessment, would inevitably leave the European Union in a structurally weaker and losing position.

From his perspective, Europe has only one theoretical way to limit Trump’s room for maneuver: move ahead independently in its own dialogue with Putin. Meter points out that in recent days this approach has been openly encouraged by French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who have both called for more active engagement with Moscow.

The analyst believes that a growing fear of political marginalization is already forcing European leaders to adjust their tone. Figures such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, he says, are noticeably softening their rhetoric toward Russia and shifting toward a more conciliatory approach. At the same time, Meter describes the situation around Greenland — which Trump has signaled an intention to bring under US control — as a struggle for influence in which the United States enjoys a clear advantage, both economically and militarily.