Good morning from Brussels. The wait is over. Come sundown in Brussels, he – aka the man who considers the EU to be a “foe”, who sees NATO as a sad collection of “freeloaders” taking advantage of the noble American taxpayer, and who thinks European countries are “ripping off” the US on trade – will once again be firmly ensconced in the White House. It’s no secret that Europe is nervous, as is should be. But we’ve been polling politicians, diplomats and other officials across Europe in recent days and were surprised to discover that many, if not all, had come to terms with Trump’s return. “We’re not going to act like a mad dog that jumps at every bit of red meat thrown at us from Mar-a-Lago,” one EU diplomat told us. Former Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker advocated a stoic approach. “We should not be afraid,” he told us with Churchillian resolve. Whether Europe has the nerve to take that advice and display what honorary European Ernest Hemingway liked to call “grace under pressure” is far from certain, bordering on extremely unlikely. The most probable scenario is that Trump’s attempts to divide and conquer Europe with his posse of Big Tech plutocrats will succeed. He’s already got Italy and Hungary in his pocket, with a number of other EU members (e.g. Austria) ripe for the picking. That may sound pessimistic, but we’re not here to sugarcoat. It’s going to be a rough four years for the EU. Whether the bloc will survive another four years of Trump with its institutions (not to mention sanity) intact is anyone’s guess. But at least the wait is over. For this special Inauguration Day edition of The Capitals, we’ve assembled a brief tour d’horizon on how some of Europe’s capitals are preparing for Donald Trump Part Deux. EU QUARTER: “There is an understanding that Trump’s second term will be so much worse than the first one was,” an EU diplomat predicted, striking an unusual note of optimism. A key question circulating among diplomats, this person said, is whether Trump will follow through with all of the threats he made on tariffs, etc., in the run-up to his inauguration. In other words, the perennial “Is he really as crazy as he sounds?’ question. Spoiler alert: Yes! PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron scored a diplomatic coup in December by bringing Trump together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr on the sidelines of the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Considering Macron’s quasi-lame-duck status, it’s worth looking at the MAGA world’s connections to the French far right. We didn’t have to look far. Among the French attendees of the inauguration is Sarah Knafo, an MEP with the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations who has built a considerable network with the Trump crowd. "The right that speaks to me as a Frenchwoman is JD Vance's right, the kind of right rooted in political philosophy,” she said before flying to Washington. "My contacts within the new Trump administration will be useful to understand how Americans operate and how we can defend ourselves in the trade disputes that will emerge with the United States." Ursula von der Leyen is no doubt looking forward to the advice! WARSAW: Poland’s leaders have a great advantage over most of their neighbours – they don’t have to lie about their country’s affection for Trump. He’s genuinely popular there. Warsaw also spends plenty on defence, so they have nothing to worry about on that score. Even better: Trump loves Slavs (at least the women). That may explain Prime Minister Donal Tusk’s can-do attitude regarding the new-old president. Tusk, who shares both the same first name and initials as the American, got to know him last time around during his tenure as Council president. “Instead of reading between the lines of Trump, let’s do our homework,” Tusk said last week. “The new Washington administration, once it sees how serious we are about this, will adopt a different approach, a more optimistic approach towards Ukraine," he added, sounding like a diplomatic Ted Lasso. Go Team! BERLIN: The Germans, as we are well aware, are all about preparation. Indeed, the Germans are so prepared for Trump that they were preparing months before he even won the election. “Europe and Germany are much better prepared for a possible second Donald Trump presidency than they were for the first,” MP Nils Schmid assured us back in July. Now that the moment’s here, though, other officials we spoke to seemed less confident. “We have no idea what’s going to happen,” a senior German official told us last week. “No idea.” At least Trump doesn’t have a personal vendetta against Germany or anything. Oh, wait... (Matthew Karnitschnig) (reporting by Alexandra Brzozowski in Brussels and Warsaw, Laurent Geslin in Paris and Nick Alipour in Berlin) | 
