Brexit negotiator names 3 threats to united Europe: Islamist terrorism, Putin — and President Trump

(Image credit: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

published 31 January 2017

The European Union's primary Brexit negotiator recently returned to London after a visit to the United States and announced that in addition to Islamist terrorism and Russian President Vladimir Putin, there is a third threat to a united Europe: President Donald Trump.

"Trump spoke very favorably of the fact that also other countries will want to break away from the European Union, and that he hoped for a disintegration of the European Union," said the negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, according to the German publication DW.

EU members have viewed Trump's choice for EU ambassador, Ted Malloch, with a certain wariness — Malloch is an outspoken and longtime critic of European supernationalism, DW writes. On Friday, when asked by a BBC presenter why he wanted to be the U.S. ambassador to the EU, Malloch replied: "I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union, so maybe there's another Union that needs a little taming."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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