Politico analyst: Europe should convince Trump he's backing the winning side

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Europeans should focus on convincing U.S. President Donald Trump that they and Ukraine are on the winning side of the war if they want Washington’s support to continue.

That’s according to Jonathan Martin, POLITICO’s U.S. politics bureau chief, who was speaking at the Playbook Live event in Brussels on Tuesday.

“In terms of Europe in the context here, Trump wants to be with the winner,” said Martin, pointing to the friendly relations between the president and Zohran Mamdani, the left-wing mayor of New York, as an example of his approach to popular figures.

“Why is he at Gracie Mansion [the official mayoral residence] with a socialist mayor of New York City yesterday, whose views ostensibly are anathema to everything Trump and Trumpism is about? It’s very easy; Trump doesn’t care about Mamdani’s politics. He’s young, he’s good-looking, he’s articulate — he’s hot. He’s the new item. That’s what Trump cares about.”

Trump “wants to be with the winners of life. He doesn’t care who you are. It could be Zohran Mamdani or [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, right? If you’re cool in the moment, if you’re part of the in club, man, he wants to be with you,” Martin went on.

“Why does that matter for Europe? Because if enough people can convince him that Putin and Russia are losing, and Ukraine is on the march, and boy, they’ve mastered this new drone technology, and they are setting back the Russians. The Russians are taking huge casualties. You know, Ukraine really is the hot new item.”