Dave Keating

1 week ago | davekeating.substack.com | Dave Keating

At Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, there was only one European leader present: Giorgia Meloni. As an ideological fellow-traveller, the Italian firebrand who leads a party with neo-fascist roots going back to Mussolini’s inner circle was a fervent admirer of the US president during his first term. Meloni, who will have a very public oval office meeting with Trump tomorrow, has been the darling of CPAC, the annual gathering for the far-right-wing of the Republican Party, for many years now.

1 week ago | davekeating.substack.com | Dave Keating

As much as the European Broadcasting Union claims that it isn’t, we all know that the Eurovision Song Contest held each year since 1956 is very political - and no year was that more evident than in 2024. The EBU’s ban on Russia’s participation after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 crossed a Rubicon of mainstreaming politics in the contest.

2 weeks ago | davekeating.substack.com | Dave Keating

There’s been a lot of confusion today about what exactly just happened with Trump’s trade war, which is understandable given the lurching policy coming out of Washington. A lot of the headlines this morning have left people with the impression that both the US and EU have called off their tariffs. That is not the case.

2 weeks ago | davekeating.substack.com | Dave Keating

For many years, European politicians have been divided into two camps on how to deal with American big tech. There was the camp of Frenchman Thierry Breton, the former internal market commissioner in Ursula von der Leyen’s first-term commission (she booted him out before her second term), who warned that Europe is too reliant on American tech and needed to show regulatory muscle while developing European alternatives.

2 weeks ago | davekeating.substack.com | Dave Keating

Europeans may not have given it much thought, but every time they make a payment with a credit or debit card they are dependent on the United States. That’s because the credit card companies are American, and the payment infrastructure that’s being used is American-controlled. It is not only Europeans’ military security that Donald Trump can throw into chaos with one swipe of a pen. He could also, conceivably, turn off Europeans’ ability to pay for everyday purchases.