For European allies of the United States, President Trump’s White House is structured like a court: the gilded Oval Office a place for advisers, pals and courtiers, all awaiting the decrees of the president.
Mr. Trump is the ultimate decision maker, and far from a predictable one. So in the first three months of this Trump presidency, getting through to the president himself is the Europeans’ goal. Some have succeeded, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, who is expected to meet him at the White House on Thursday.
What is most confusing, European officials say, is that the most efficient interlocutors are not traditional diplomats working through institutions, but special envoys and advisers like Elon Musk. And it is never quite clear whether the messages get through to Mr. Trump, even if he is more likely to trust an old friend like Steve Witkoff, whom he has installed as a foreign policy negotiator, over the civil servants he disdains.
“Everyone in D.C. says you have to talk to Trump directly,” a senior European official said.
The European officials said they found Trump officials polite but consumed with fulfilling the president’s wishes and said they expressed little interest in their allies.
For example, American officials gave no head’s up to key European nations about renewed talks last Saturday with Iran over its nuclear program, two European officials said. The European countries — Britain, France and Germany — were signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement that the president later left, had been the instigators and intermediaries for that deal and have been trying themselves to advance negotiations on a new one.
Though collectively one of the world’s most formidable economies, home to nearly 750 million people and major U.S. allies, Europe is not a Trump priority. Instead, Mr. Trump sees Europe as a rival or even an adversary, believing that the European Union was created “to screw the United States.”
The Trump administration is “not terribly interested in what the Europeans have to say,” a European official said. “It’s all about unilateralism and they don’t consult much. After all, if they don’t consider us allies to that extent, why would they?”
The New York Times spoke to European officials in Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome and other capitals to get a sense of how they are interacting with the Trump administration. Most were not authorized to openly discuss their interactions and spoke on the condition that they not be named.
In private, the Europeans said, Trump officials are welcoming and say reassuring things about his commitment to Europe, NATO and collective defense. That has been true, the officials said, of those like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and even Vice President JD Vance. Meetings are “cordial,” one American official said. Mr. Rubio and Mr. Witkoff traveled to Paris on Wednesday for talks with French leaders about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But it is never clear to allies whether either man has real power over foreign policy or trade. In public, their comments about allies can be searing, as a kind of bond with Mr. Trump, while European officials are keeping silent for the most part to avoid his ire.
Allied officials said that they can talk — sometimes — to Trump appointees like Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, or special envoys including Mr. Witkoff or Keith Kellogg, but that they are busy with many tasks. Mr. Witkoff has no official counterpart in European countries, so consultations can be haphazard. Mr. Waltz has become more cautious even in private after the revelation that he inadvertently added a journalist to a Signal text chain of top Trump advisers, one official said.
Traditional channels — through the State Department, embassies, the National Security Council — have proved more difficult for productive exchanges, partly because the Senate has confirmed so few high-ranking officials. That is not unusual for new administrations, but it frustrates allies around the world. And political appointees at lower levels, who do not need Senate confirmation, are said to be more fervently allied to Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies.
Pentagon officials are especially careful in conversations with allies, the officials said, attributing that reticence to a fear of being fired. A senior British military official recently professed confusion about who was steering the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific policy in the White House, a critical area for Britain.
White House spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
Mistrusting multilateralism
Mr. Trump, who despises the collective power of the European Union and sees many NATO allies as freeloaders, maintains his mistrust of multilateral institutions, even those designed by Washington, as obstacles to American power.
His officials take that as policy. Mr. Rubio refused at the last minute to meet Kaja Kallas, the E.U. foreign and security chief who favors stronger resistance to Russia, when she flew to Washington in February to see him. Other Europeans are not even getting on the calendar: Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has failed in repeated efforts to meet Mr. Trump. A spokeswoman for the Commission said that a meeting had not yet been possible.
That has left Europe relying on national leaders to form bridges to the Oval Office. One is Ms. Meloni, the only E.U. leader invited to Mr. Trump’s inauguration. She tried for weeks before securing the White House meeting with Mr. Trump, one U.S. official said, citing scheduling conflicts.
Ms. Meloni, a far-right politician, is taking care not to alienate either Brussels or Washington, and a role as European interlocutor is unlikely to have much weight. But at least she will have a chance to speak directly to Mr. Trump about Italian — and European — concerns.
Though the European Union has considerable heft in trade and regulations, Mr. Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has regularly declined to meet European officials. Others described polite but cold welcomes from cabinet officials dealing with trade and financial issues.
Conversations on trade with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been friendly and even sympathetic, but it has been clear to European officials that he does not speak for the administration — Mr. Trump alone is making policy decisions, and they may change without notice. Mr. Lutnick himself admitted to CBS News that he was more of a messenger than a decision maker.
Maros Sefcovic, the E.U. commissioner for trade, met with Mr. Lutnick for two hours on Monday. But he made little progress toward striking a deal, and it was not clear to officials after the meeting what the American goals are.
NATO’s delicate moment
Many top European officials share the view that Western support for Ukraine must include the United States — an issue that has divided the Trump administration. Mr. Trump’s embrace of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his renewed demands that other members contribute more to NATO have left Europe in a vulnerable spot.
NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, succeeded in meeting with Mr. Trump in mid-March, after which he came away reassured, for now, about the president’s support for collective defense.
While he will happily meet with Mr. Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Mr. Rutte believes that his personal relationship with Mr. Trump — forged when he was the prime minister of the Netherlands — is the best and perhaps only guarantee of a fair hearing, officials familiar with his thinking said.
NATO, which is popular among Americans, is also working to preserve those views in the face of Mr. Trump’s skepticism. European alliance officials who grew up viewing the United States as its core were recently surprised to be assigned to convince young Americans of its worth.
Influencing Americans ages 18 to 30 was the No. 1 priority of an outreach campaign, running from March to May, according to a briefing document shared with The Times — to promote “enhanced awareness of NATO’s relevance & purpose to national security.” A NATO official declined to comment on the document but said the alliance routinely tries to connect with international audiences.
Leader to leader
Some of Europe’s most prominent leaders have navigated the administration with a mix of flattery and attempts to find common cause.
President Emmanuel Macron of France, who like Mr. Rutte has a long relationship with Mr. Trump, is said to be able to get Mr. Trump on the phone fairly easily, as is Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain.
Mr. Starmer notably turned up at the White House in February with a formal invitation to Mr. Trump from King Charles III for a rare second state visit, and he has resolutely refused to criticize the president.
But his solicitous approach has yielded mixed results. Mr. Trump did not spare Britain from his basic 10 percent tariff.
Britain set out to negotiate its own trade deal with the United States before Mr. Trump announced his tariffs. But its team had to navigate the idiosyncrasies of Mr. Trump’s administration.
Mr. Lutnick, who has led the talks, has been very “broad brush” in his approach, according to a senior British official. Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, is good on details, but has little clout internally.
But as with other Europeans, there is also less satisfaction at a working level, partly because of unease about Mr. Trump’s outreach to Mr. Putin and bullying of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The Americans do not want the Europeans meddling in the relationship with Moscow, the officials said, and have resisted European demands to participate in negotiations on Ukraine and for U.S. involvement in any post-settlement security guarantees.
In Mr. Trump’s world, Europe exemplifies the old consensus represented by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and should learn to take care of itself while Washington redefines the world.
“They think Europe is weak,” Anna Cavazzini, a German member of the European Parliament, said after a trip to Washington. “Europe is built on cooperation. They are not interested in cooperation so much.”
Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
Steven Erlanger is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe and is based in Berlin. He has reported from over 120 countries, including Thailand, France, Israel, Germany and the former Soviet Union.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
Lara Jakes, based in Rome, reports on diplomatic and military efforts by the West to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. She has been a journalist for nearly 30 years.
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
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