BERLIN — European leaders have rapidly learned to work with the American president they have rather than wishing for another.

There’s no greater proof of that than in the gushing response to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will indirectly provide weapons for Ukraine by allowing European countries to buy them themselves while NATO coordinates deliveries.

European leaders — and NATO’s secretary-general, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — hailed the announcement as a sign of the American president’s great leadership, following the first rule in dealings with Trump: Praise the man.

“Mr. President, dear Donald, this is really big. This is really big,” said Rutte, sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office.

In reality, it wasn’t quite like that. The key decisions had already been taken in Europe, where European leaders, faced with Trump’s ambivalence toward arming Ukraine and Russia’s escalating summer offensive in the embattled country, knew they had to act fast. German leaders in particular pushed for the arrangement, viewing what Trump has repeatedly called his “disappointment” with Russian President Vladimir Putin as opening a window of opportunity.

Germany is “massively” invested in the plan, said Rutte, who visited Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin only last week. In private, German officials say the initiative was a German idea.

Merz said he has been in touch with Trump several times in recent days and has assured him that Germany “will play a decisive role” in the effort to supply Kyiv with U.S. weapons. He also depicted Trump’s statements alongside Rutte as clear evidence that the U.S. and its European allies are on the same page when it comes to defending Ukraine.

“We are doing this in our own interests,” Merz said. “This will help Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s bombing campaign of terror. This is the only way to increase the pressure on Moscow to finally negotiate peace. Finally, we are showing that we are pulling in the same direction as security policy partners.”

More accurately, however, it’s the Europeans who appear to be pulling Trump.

‘One step behind the Europeans’

Despite Trump’s increasing disillusionment with Putin for his lack of interest in a peace deal, the U.S. president has dithered on taking concrete steps to drastically step up military aid to Ukraine. So the Europeans, led largely by Merz along with Rutte, found a workaround.

European leaders knew it would be much easier for Trump — who sees global politics, from trade to NATO, largely as zero-sum financial transactions — to agree to supply arms for Ukraine if the Europeans bought them, allowing the U.S. to swing a profit.

But they were also aware of Trump’s reluctance to abandon the isolationist wing of his MAGA movement by taking a more active role in defending Ukraine and directly confronting Putin. By providing American weapons themselves, the Europeans are providing Trump with cover to act.

The strategy “would enable the U.S. administration to increase the pressure on Russia and strengthen its support for Ukraine, while at the same time allowing it to remain one step behind the Europeans,” a German government official who advises Merz said in Berlin just ahead of Trump’s announcement.

The approach also allows Trump to maintain what the official called some of the “equidistance that may have characterized the first months of the Trump administration from an American perspective.”

European divisions remain

Not all European countries are on board with the approach, however. In the Oval Office, Rutte listed four Nordic countries in addition to the U.K. and the Netherlands as backing the plan to send U.S. weapons to Ukraine. France, whose President Emmanuel Macron has long pushed for Europeans to build up their own defense industrial base by buying locally, was a notable omission from the list.

Paris will not join the initiative to buy U.S. weapons for that reason, according to two French officials with knowledge of the issue. The French government is also struggling to boost its own defense spending as it tries to make budget cuts and rein in its staggering deficit.

But given Europe’s limited manufacturing capacity, Merz’s government believes buying American is one of the only ways to swiftly supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs. Details on specific weapons purchases remain scarce, but as Ukrainian cities undergo heavier bombardment, the German government has been pushing particularly hard on a deal to buy U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.

“We appreciate the readiness to provide additional Patriots, and the U.S., Germany, and Norway are already working together on this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X after Trump’s announcement. “There will also be deliveries of other weapons to protect lives of our people and repel Russian assaults.”

The approach marks an astonishing turnaround for Merz, who on the night of his election victory back in February vowed “to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence” from the U.S. Since then, Merz has drastically shifted his rhetoric, speaking of his faith in Trump’s commitment to NATO and the indispensability of the transatlantic relationship.

At work is a heavy dollop of German Realpolitik, Merz having quickly learned that Trump is better handled through pragmatism than confrontation.