Trump vs. the EU: framing the enemy

In the history of transatlantic relations, a broadening European Union and its strengthening political and economic cohesion have triggered several and sometimes different approaches in the US (Lundestand 1998). After Bill Clinton’s open support of monetary union in the EU, the progress towards a tighter political union among European states was seen as a geopolitical threat at the time of the G. W. Bush administration (2000-2008), potentially jeopardising American global interests (see Kopstein and Steinmo 2008). Obama’s era, in the long term, resulted as quite disappointing (Cowles and Egan 2012). However, the new course of the Conservative administration led by Donald Trump, the most divisive supporter of US national isolationism and protectionism, has upgraded US – EU relations to a new political rivalry. This paper aims to investigate the way in which Trump constructs foreign politics by following a narrative frame that undermines the EU as an institutional global actor and its political integration.