By Allison Hoffman, Executive Editor, Politico UK

For anyone who lives by the adage that no crisis should go to waste, 2026 has been a year of plenty.

The drama of Donald Trump’s blitz removal of dictator Nicolás Maduro at the start of January was quickly overtaken in February by a chilly war of words between Washington and Europe over Greenland’s future, which was then in turn eclipsed by the very hot conflict in the Middle East that paralyzed global energy markets in March—and that was just Q1.

And then there’s the drama of the Epstein files. The U.S. legislation ordering the publication of millions of pages of investigative material was passed in response to a US domestic political controversy with roots in a decade-old conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton and a popular neighbourhood pizzeria in northwest Washington, D.C. The avalanche of emails, photos, and communication has instead shaken governments, universities, and private firms around the world, with no end in sight as London pursues its own document release surrounding the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as well as former U.S. ambassador Peter Mandelson, both of whom were friends with the late convicted sex offender.

The common source of all this chaos, of course, is Trump.

It’s clear by now that the whiplash that characterized 2025 as Trump settled into his second presidential term was no aberration. The shock and awe of the Liberation Day tariffs and resulting trade disputes of last year has given way to a bigger US effort to reshape global power balances by force this year—and Europe, home to what are now frequently referred to as “the middle powers,” has struggled to respond strategically. Brussels, for example, has struggled to unite on a coherent plan for getting crucial financial aid to Ukraine—a top European priority—to make up for the absence of US funding, and the unity that characterized the response to the threats of 2025 across capital has frayed, with individual leaders increasingly making their own policy calculations and conducting their own conversations with Washington and other new allies.

That’s left the European public losing confidence in the U.S., but also…

This interview was published in the Spring-Summer 2026 issue of CODI, EACD’s magazine shaped by experts in the field and dedicated entirely to communication professionals. In a world where everything moves fast, CODI creates a moment to step back and explore key issues in real depth. Twice a year, it gives communicators the perspective they need beyond the noise of the news cycle.

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