United States ambassador to the European Union Andrew Puzder has said that if the US-Republic relationship has been damaged by recent differences, there has not been “irreparable damage”.
Puzder also insisted that ties between the two countries remain deep and strong.
The ambassador is in Ireland for meetings in advance of the State’s EU presidency, with which he says the US is anxious to help, despite evident hostility to the EU by the Trump administration.
Asked if the Republic-United States relationship had been damaged, Puzder replied: “I’m not going to tell you whether there was damage or not ... I don’t think there was irreparable damage. But, you know, you don’t have to agree with us on everything. And you don’t have to agree with President Trump on everything.”
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On Iran, he said Trump had taken the steps he felt necessary, and that there was no political advantage in doing so.
“The Democrats, you know, they’re going to criticise him, whatever he does. And ... the Maga [Make America Great Again] movement who supports him, they don’t want to get involved in wars overseas either,” he said on Wednesday. “So if he made the decision to do this, particularly with a midterm election coming up, the only explanation is that ... he believed this was the right thing to do. And I think people will see the wisdom of that over time.”
Striking a diplomatic tone not always evident in Washington, Puzder said that the US wanted to see Europe succeed economically because it considered Europe an important ally and trading partner.
He praised European Parliament president Roberta Metsola and Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as “obviously a very brilliant, talented woman”.
“Look, we want, America wants the European Union, and Europe in general, to be prosperous. Prosperous Europe is a better trade partner, a prosperous Europe is better able to defend itself.”
But he said Europe had fallen behind on artificial intelligence (AI).
“To be part of the AI economy, you have to look at what’s necessary to be in the AI economy. You need energy, you need critical minerals. You need data centres, you need data, and you need the American AI hardware stack,” he said.
He also said that Europe would continue to require fossil fuels.
However, Puzder’s most consistent message was that Europe needed to reduce regulation in order to improve its competitiveness. Many US companies consider EU regulations a significant barrier to expansion and trade.
“You know, it’s Meta. It’s Google. The American tech companies. And they come into my office at the embassy and say, ‘You know, ambassador, can you help us? We love Europe ... But every time we turn around, it’s another regulation, or they move the goalpost, or there’s a $100 million fine. And it’s very hard to grow in Europe while we have those impediments’,” he said.
Asked about the Trump administration’s willingness to support parties in Europe – such as vice-president JD Vance campaigning unsuccessfully for Viktor Orbán in the recent Hungarian election – Puzder said: “If you’re asking me if you can expect President Trump to say what’s on his mind in the future, yes, you can expect that. He will absolutely say what’s on his mind in the future. He will not hold back.”
However, he declined to be drawn on the recent spat between Trump and Pope Leo.
“You have to look at what the president says and what the pope says, and if they disagree, they disagree ... I don’t know what else to say. They don’t have to agree on everything.”
