Correction: This article originally identified European Parliament member Peter van Dalen as Danish. He is Dutch.
Former President Donald Trump is a unique threat to the integrity of the United States not seen since the Confederate secession of the Civil War, warned Dutch European Parliament member Peter van Dalen in an opinion piece for POLITICO.
"Trump seems a dark throwback to the 19th century, when the American civil war erupted because men like John C. Calhoun, Nathan B. Forrest and Jefferson Davis wanted their truth to be victorious," wrote van Dalen. "The result: a bloody secession. Trump now similarly wants his truth to be victorious. And while that hopefully doesn’t mean an actual civil war, the U.S. is in the middle of a disorienting cultural civil war."
Trump has caused sharp political divides, with much of the country polarizing around support or opposition to him, and these lines only getting clearer as the former president faces three criminal indictments.
There is currently no serious talk of secession — but the January 6 insurrection and failed coup plot at the Capitol are still fresh in everyone's memory, and other sporadic violent incidents are occurring, with a Utah man being shot and killed in a clash with the FBI after making imminent threats on social media to kill President Joe Biden with a sniper rifle during his trip to Salt Lake City this week.
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With Europe at its own political crossroads and facing economic and cultural pressures over the blockade of Russia and support of Ukraine, van Dalen said, it is vital for Europeans to warn the U.S. about their fear for the integrity of their union, and the threat Trump poses to it.
"Let us not fall into the same web of division and hatred that Trump spins to entrap Americans," concluded van Dalen. "This time, let justice prevail. And let there be a 'just and lasting peace.'"
