US breaks with UN and G7 allies over Ukraine war measures

Good morning and welcome back to White House Watch. Yesterday was a big day in the international arena, so let’s get right to it. Today we’re talking about:

• How the US broke with allies over Ukraine

• The rightwing podcaster named as FBI deputy

• Europe’s largest asset manager on Trump’s ‘big mistake’

A US resolution that called for a “swift end” to the war in Ukraine passed the UN Security Council yesterday, dealing a fresh blow to western unity during Donald Trump’s presidency.

In the latest sign of unravelling transatlantic ties, the resolution passed with support from Moscow and Beijing, while traditional US allies including France and the UK abstained from the measure that made no mention of Russian aggression.

Shelby Magid, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said even if the vote didn’t mark a complete break between Washington and Europe, the symbolism was clear.

“It is stunning to see the US on the same side as these countries that we point to as in this axis of aggressors,” Magid said.

Washington also sided with Moscow in voting against a UN General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, shortly after G7 diplomats spent the weekend haggling over whether a joint statement would refer to Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine.

The US president said yesterday he was open to an “economic” deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that the two countries had held “very good talks” over ending the war.

Meanwhile, tensions with Europe were kept on a low simmer at the White House, where Trump hosted French President Emmanuel Macron. The US president offered tepid support when pressed about military “back-up” for European troops that could be sent to Ukraine on a peacekeeping mission.

“We will have a backing of some kind. Obviously, European countries are going to be involved. I don’t think you’re going to need much backing,” Trump said.

The US president found a — perhaps unlikely — source of praise from elsewhere in Europe though. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Trump had changed the “global conversation” on Ukraine for the better, ahead of a visit to Washington this week. Stay tuned to see if Starmer can convince Trump to maintain its US security guarantee in Europe when they meet on Thursday.

The latest headlines

What we’re hearing

After Trump signed an executive order last week to “rein in independent regulators”, Europe’s largest asset manager warned the US president is making “a big, big mistake”.

Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer of Amundi, which manages €2.2tn in assets, told the FT’s Harriet Clarfelt that “at the end of the day, what is working in the US is the checks and balances”.

“If everything is put under [executive power], with an agenda for deregulation, crypto, digital push — and many conflicts of interest everywhere, it is the start of the end of how . . . democracy is working. It’s quite dangerous, really.”

Domestic critics of Trump’s effort to clamp down on watchdogs have said that the order is illegal and interferes with Congress’s core function of granting regulators power through legislation.

Mortier’s warning, however, pointed to the potential global implications: an erosion of trust threatens the dollar and the proper functioning of US markets.

“The biggest threat is whenever people, in particular big foreign investors, start to question the trust,” he added.

“I don’t think that’s yet there, but there are more and more things that are done that could start to erode the trust. And at the end of the day, the US dollar status is also linked to this — trust in the US system, in the Fed, in the US economy.”

Viewpoints