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The Rape Of Europa

Portfolio Armor's Photo
by Portfolio Armor
Monday, Jul 28, 2025 - 8:57
A riff on Titian's "The Rape of Europa", with Ursula von der Leyen as Europa and Trump as Zeus disguised as a bull.
A riff on Titian's "The Rape of Europa", with Ursula von der Leyen as Europa and Trump as Zeus disguised as a bull.

The Double Humiliation Of Europe

That's a pretty clever image, isn't it? Starting with Titian's "The Rape Of Europa" and putting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's face on Europa and President Trump's face on Zeus disguised as the bull. If I were a certain one of my fellow contributing editors, that image would be the whole post, but instead, I'm going to give you some of the best reactions to Ursula's brace of humiliations at the hands of Xi and Trump. 

Before we get to them, a couple of quick investing notes: 

  1. If you're a risk-averse investor, and you missed this post over the weekend, here's another chance to read about how to get solid returns without the stock market's volatility.
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Now, back to our story. 

Humiliated In China 

For some perspective, here's how China treats a visiting foreign leader it respects, in this case, Russian President Vladimir Putin last year. 

Compare to the welcome Ursula von der Leyen and her entourage got in China last week. 

Like she was about to pick up her rental from Hertz.

Humiliated In Scotland 

The worst was yet to come in Scotland, however, as she met President Trump at his golf club there over the weekend. 

The words cut off after "Trump's" below are "humiliation rituals".

European reactions ranged from anger to embarrassment. 

Russian accounts reveled in schadenfreude at the terms of the deal.

As Armchair Warlord summed it up, the Europeans have paid the price for their Russophobia by cementing their subordinate status to the U.S.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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