Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, who served as a Member of the European Parliament for 21 years and as the first Secretary General of the European Conservatives and Reformists from 2009 to 2018, chastised U.S. President Donald Trump this week in his op-ed for the Washington Examiner titled, ‘Trump Has Killed the American-led World Order.’
[NOTE: Hannan, who sits as a non-affiliated life peer in the House of Lords, earlier this year became director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which describes itself as “the UK’s original free market think tank.”]
After Trump eased restrictions on Russian diesel exports and waived new sanctions against Russia last week, enabling a flow of revenue to fuel Putin’s war against Ukraine, Hannan wrote: “MAGA sophists and apologists variously claim that this is either about bringing a speedy peace or about withdrawing the U.S. from an ungrateful Europe.”
He added, “A case can be made for both those positions, but neither is advanced by limiting the satellite system on which Ukrainian drones rely, unfreezing Russian assets, or buying diesel from Vladimir Putin. No, what we are seeing is what we have seen all along. When the chips are down, President Donald Trump sides with Putin.”
Indisputable. Amazing that partisan think Trump is strong, or for America first. He’s weak, pathetic, and selling off American greatness for his self enrichment and to the empowerment of our enemies.
— Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) October 18, 2026
With a link to the article, Hannan wrote on social media: “There is no longer any point in discussing Trump’s motives. Is he still sore about the Hunter Biden laptop business? Is he mesmerized by Putin, as by so many autocrats? Does the Kremlin, as conspiracy theorists allege, have kompromat on him? Who cares? Whether or not he is a Russian asset, he is plainly an asset to Russia.”
Veteran of the American conservative legal movement, Gregg Nunziata, replied to Hannan, “Indisputable. Amazing that partisan think Trump is strong, or for America first. He’s weak, pathetic, and selling off American greatness for his self enrichment and to the empowerment of our enemies.”
Czech conservative politician Jan Zahradil, who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2024, replied with a different perspective. He wrote of Trump: “Dan, he simply wants to get rid of the Ukraine problem and I can understand it. It’s Europe’s concern, not US concern. And Europe’s reaction will be eventually decided by voters (starting with France), not by EU bureaucrats or Macron or Merz. It’s easy to predict the outcome.”