Transatlantic tension, a MAGA gold rush, and a climate own goal

Gold fever has broken out among America’s right-wing opinion makers, fuelled by a gold price that continues to climb to new records. Keystone/Swissinfo

Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday I look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science.

Gold is good, climate science is a scam. Those messages coming out of the US this week were unambiguous. Reading between the lines of a speech by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the transatlantic bond required a bit more analysis, but the Swiss media were unanimously unimpressed.

Marco Rubio speaks during the 62nd Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Keystone

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference at the weekend, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have reassured some people about relations between America and Europe, but the Swiss media weren’t buying it.

“The relief among the Europeans was almost palpable. Last year US Vice President JD Vance gave them a real roasting and expressed his contempt for the old continent. Now Secretary of State Rubio has reached out his hand for reconciliation,” wrote Swiss public broadcaster SRF on Saturday, saying Washington seemed to be using a ‘bad cop, good cop’ routine in Munich.

At times, Rubio seemed almost sentimental, SRF said. For example, when he nostalgically romanticised the founding of defence alliance NATO after the Second World War, or when he said Americans “will always be a child of Europe”. And, of course, when he said there was no intention of leaving NATO.

“However, if you listen more closely, it becomes clear that the Americans are offering a renewed rapprochement – but strictly on their own terms. And this is not about values and principles, but solely about power,” SRF said.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) agreed, pointing out that while the major transatlantic uncertainty had diminished somewhat, “the basis of the alliance has shifted – from values to interests, from commitments to performance”.

“The uncertainty has not disappeared, but it is more clearly defined,” the NZZ continued. “Munich has not created a new world order, but the meeting has made it clear under what conditions the old one will continue to exist. The alliance has not broken down; it has been re-evaluated. Whether this will result in a resilient new order will not be decided in speeches, but in budgets, investment programmes and real increases in capabilities. Rhetorically, calm has returned. The real test is yet to come.”

The headline of the editorial in Le Temps gave a pretty clear idea of what the Geneva newspaper thought of Munich: “A decoy named Marco Rubio”.

“In the bubble of this conference on security, which brought together some 60 heads of state and all the continent’s top military officers and spy chiefs, some people were smiling again,” Le Temps wrote on Sunday. “They were wrong. They only wanted to hear part of this deceptively friendly speech. For those – fortunately the majority – who did listen, the US Secretary of State’s speech sounded like a second ‘shock treatment’, very much in line with that of JD Vance. The transatlantic bond of which Marco Rubio speaks is at best an illusion. For what’s it made of? The ‘Western civilisation’ that Donald Trump’s United States proposes to ‘restore’ resembles 19th-century imperialism.”

Le Temps thought Rubio might have tried to distinguish himself from his president in terms of his understanding of the European continent and how to rebuild ties with allies. “This has not been the case,” it concluded. “The ‘new Western century’ advocated by the head of American diplomacy is decidedly rancid.”

• America extends a hand – but strictly on its own termsExternal link – SRF analysis (German)

• Summary of Rubio’s speech in five pointsExternal link – SRF (German)

• America re-evaluates the WestExternal link – NZZ editorial (German, paywall)

• A decoy named Marco RubioExternal link – Le Temps editorial (French, paywall)

• Is the world returning to spheres of influence? – Swissinfo

Gold is a commodity that fits perfectly into the MAGA world view, according to the Tages-Anzeiger. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

America’s right-wing influencers are warning of the demise of the dollar and an economic collapse and are urging people to buy gold – from which they happen to be making money, reports the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich.

“In Donald Trump’s world, everything is gold-coloured: the escalator he rode down in Trump Tower on the night of his first election victory. The ballroom that is being built where the East Wing of the White House once stood. The World Cup trophy that FIFA boss Gianni Infantino recently presented to him. And because there can be no such thing as too much gold in Trump’s eyes, he also proclaimed a new ‘golden age’ at the start of his second term of office,” the Tages-Anzeiger wrote on Monday.

“It looks like his speakers in the MAGA-cosmos have taken this literally. Gold fever has broken out among America’s right-wing opinion makers, fuelled by a gold price that continues to climb to new records. Anyone who listens to the podcasts and shows of Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and other protagonists of the MAGA bubble, who achieve enormous reach among conservative voters, can hardly escape it. Gold has become salvation for right-wing influencers in an economy that is supposedly on the brink – and big business.”

The Tages-Anzeiger explained how, for MAGA believers, gold isn’t just any precious metal: it’s a commodity that fits perfectly into their world view. “They see the dollar as the enemy. They believe that the American economy’s dependence on the dollar is bad for the US. This is because it has led to industrial jobs migrating to China and the US government starting pointless wars. But now the old currency system is on the verge of collapse. The US’s high national debt and galloping inflation are only the most obvious evidence of this.”

The newspaper said right-wing opinion-makers see the dollar crisis as a “deliberate conspiracy by politicians and the US Federal Reserve against the American people”. And they present an easy way out: buying gold. “By doing so, they promise, even hard-working average Americans could protect their assets from the impending collapse.”

The problem, according to the US financial regulator, is that the promise of quick and easy riches is often a scam. The Tages-Anzeiger said the gold companies allegedly sold their mostly elderly customers particularly valuable special coins and collected a generous commission for them. “Several dozen cheated customers have already sued the companies for this,” it said.

• Gold fever under TrumpExternal link – Tages-Anzeiger (German, paywall)

Cars on the 101 freeway in Los Angeles. The latest decision will mean the more economical cars will be exported, while the less economical ones will be sold in the US. Keystone

On Thursday US President Donald Trump reversed a law adopted under Barack Obama that served as the basis for the fight against greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The Swiss media said this came as no surprise, but it had significant consequences.

“Donald Trump is obsessed with the past,” the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich declared on Friday. “With times when hardly anyone cared about the climate or the environment. When smokestacks in Detroit spewed out fumes, massive gas‑guzzling cars cruised down the highways, and entire mountains were stripped for coal.”

In Trump’s campaign against climate policy and in favour of the US fossil fuel lobby, this is the most serious decision to date, the newspaper said. It pointed out that in many markets, the US would be able to keep up only if it fulfilled local emissions standards. “The result will be that the more economical cars will be exported, while the less economical ones will be sold in the US. […] The fossil fuel industry is grateful: if you have to fill up more, you pay more.”

Even more serious, according to the Tages-Anzeiger, is the damage this campaign is doing to US industry. “Trump’s tariffs are already lulling the industry into a false belief that international competition is a thing of the past. The elimination of regulation removes the pressure on them to continue developing resource-saving technologies. The American president is steering his industry straight into a museum.”

Le Temps in Geneva predicted that this latest blow to the fight against climate change would result in a lengthy legal battle, noting that several environmental associations had announced their intention to challenge it in court. What’s more, the paper said, “this reversal comes at a time when 2025 has been confirmed by climatologists as the third-hottest year ever recorded on Earth, and the effects of climate disruption are being felt throughout the United States and the rest of the world”.

• Coverage on SRFExternal link, RTSExternal link and RSIExternal link (German, French, Italian)

• Donald Trump strikes another blow in the fight against climate changeExternal link – Le Temps (French)

• Trump is steering his industry into the museumExternal link – Tages-Anzeiger editorial (German, paywall)

• Donald Trump doesn’t care about global warming – and is now serious about his anti-climate policyExternal link – NZZ (German, paywall)

The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, February 25. See you then!

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