Geopolitics creates strange bedfellows. President Donald Trump, his opponents in the US and his critics in Europe have found common cause: opposing the planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would transport Russian natural gas to Germany. All sides are in rare agreement, but they are all misguided in their own ways.
Mr Trump’s opposition to Nord Stream 2 is about trade in the wider sense. He sees US liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales to Europe — Germany in particular — as a way to rebalance trade relations he thinks work against US interests. He has repeatedly criticised Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, seemingly in the belief that this is the best way to win concessions.
