How Europe learnt to speak so Trump would listen

BERLIN – By midday on Aug 15 in Europe, a question was bouncing among the government offices and vacation villas of the continent’s most influential leaders.

The Ukrainian President was headed to the White House for a crucial meeting with President Donald Trump. Mr Trump was allowing him to bring backup. But who should go?

It was the sort of dilemma that once might have erupted into public disputes among Germany, France and Britain, the continent’s largest powers. This time, it didn’t.

The leaders of those countries decided they would all accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington for a summit with Mr Trump about peace talks with Russia. So would the leaders of Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato.

They flew in on separate planes. But with Mr Trump, they spoke in one voice.

“We were well prepared and well coordinated,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters after he and his counterparts met Mr Trump at the White House. “We also represented the same viewpoints. I think that really pleased the American President.”

Mr Trump’s persistent and sometimes volatile effort to

bring a diplomatic end to the war between Ukraine and Russia

has forged stronger bonds among European leaders.

It has strengthened the unity that emerged earlier in 2025 amid Mr Trump’s tariff threats and his wavering on what have been decades-long security guarantees that America has provided to Europe.

Since Mr Trump’s election, European leaders have raced to shore up their own defences, wary of losing American support. Nato members, led by Germany, have pledged to increase their military spending significantly, to meet a target set by Mr Trump.

Mr Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have signed new friendship treaties with one another and begun to build a set of shadow diplomatic institutions, including one for Ukraine, that advance European interests but do not include the United States.

The last two weeks have forced them to coordinate even more closely, on the fly. After Mr Trump made the shock announcement that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Mr Merz quickly pulled together his European allies for a video call with Mr Trump.

The Europeans presented Mr Trump with a five-point strategy for him to take into the Alaska meeting – including the insistence that only Ukraine could negotiate any land swops with Russia and that for serious peace talks to begin, Russia must first agree to a ceasefire.

Mr Trump signed on to it.

But at the summit, he abandoned it – agreeing with Mr Putin’s long-standing push to negotiate a peace deal while fighting continues, a position that advantages Russia, which is making gains on the battlefield.

That reversal alarmed the European officials, even as they publicly stressed a few areas in which Mr Trump had seemingly won concessions, like the need for a robust multinational security guarantee for post-war Ukraine.

After Mr Trump called to brief Mr Zelensky and then the European leaders on his way back from Alaska early on Aug 15, they scrambled again.

They agreed on the large group to accompany Mr Zelensky, which was formalised by a White House invitation on the night of Aug 16, and hammered out a strategy for the meeting.

Early on Aug 18, they huddled at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.

Their script leaned heavily on flattery for Mr Trump, which is by now standard practice among visiting dignitaries, and on declarations of unity with one another and with Mr Trump.

“Everybody around this table is in favour of peace,” Mr Macron said, as television cameras rolled, near the start of a large group meeting with the President.

The Europeans avoided big disagreements with Mr Trump; the closest anyone came to a diplomatic row was when Mr Merz, on camera, repeated his belief that talks between Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin could happen only if a ceasefire was in place.

Privately, Mr Merz pressed Mr Trump on at least forcing a ceasefire for the duration of any actual meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky.

They also tugged on Mr Trump’s heartstrings.

Mr Zelensky presented a letter from his wife to First Lady Melania Trump, echoing her public concerns over the fate of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian troops.

Mr Zelensky and EU president Ursula von der Leyen raised the topic again shortly before their meeting ended, and Mr Trump left to call Mr Putin.

European leaders expressed confidence that the approach had helped to break whatever spell Mr Putin appeared to have cast over Mr Trump in Alaska, and that Mr Trump had ended the day back in agreement with them over most points about the peace process.

Mr Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Aug 19, sounded pleased with the Europeans who had visited him. “They want to get back to leading their countries,” he said. “They’re consumed with this far more than we are.”

He also took credit, in a way, for their united front. “A year ago, they wouldn’t have come,” he said. “They wouldn’t have even thought about it.” NYTIMES