Ursula’s Scottish size incompetence by Marja Heikkinen

It happened quietly in the grey mists of Turnberry, Scotland, an elegant coastal golf resort owned by none other than Donald J. Trump. On July 28th, 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shook hands with Trump in a meeting that now risks becoming one of the darkest stains on her presidency and, more alarmingly, a turning point for European sovereignty in global trade.

The deal struck was nothing short of scandalous: a lopsided trade agreement that exposes European agriculture and manufacturing to unfair American competition, while granting Trump precisely the kind of symbolic victory he’s been craving to jump-start his chaotic campaign trail back in the U.S. The specifics are still being dissected, but early leaks indicate deep tariff cuts on American agricultural products, regulatory “harmonization” that undercuts the EU’s environmental and consumer standards, and absurd concessions in digital markets and pharmaceuticals. In return? A vague promise of “strategic cooperation” and a few diplomatic niceties that barely paper over the damage done. This is not diplomacy. This is surrender.

Let’s be clear: Ursula von der Leyen did not just make a bad deal, she betrayed the very principles the European Union stands for. This was not a moment of shrewd negotiation. It was appeasement. It was weakness. It was a deal done not in Brussels, but in the shadow of Trump’s private golf course, far away from the democratic accountability of the European Parliament or the scrutiny of EU citizens.

Who exactly does Ursula represent? Because it’s becoming increasingly hard to believe it’s the 448 million citizens of the European Union.

For months, von der Leyen’s defenders have painted her as a pragmatic centrist, someone who knows how to balance diplomacy with firmness. But what we saw in Turnberry was not pragmatism, it was capitulation. By sidestepping the usual transparency protocols and brokering this deal in a setting better suited for cocktails than continental strategy, von der Leyen showed us exactly how out of touch and out of depth, she truly is.

The fallout is already palpable. European farmers, already battered by climate stress and inflation, now face a flood of subsidized American products entering their markets, grown and produced under far looser environmental and labour regulations. How is a French dairy farmer or a Spanish olive grower supposed to compete with the industrial-scale machinery of America’s agri-giants?

Germany’s car manufacturers, Italy’s textile producers, even Scandinavia’s eco-tech innovators, all are now eyeing the deal with unease. Trump promised “American dominance” and with von der Leyen’s help, he may have just gotten it, at the EU’s expense.

And let’s not even begin on the implications for data privacy and digital sovereignty. This deal reportedly includes concessions that allow U.S. tech giants easier access to EU consumer data, circumventing key elements of the GDPR. It’s Silicon Valley’s dream and Europe’s nightmare.

Perhaps what is most galling is the secrecy surrounding the entire affair. No clear public mandate, no transparent negotiation process, no formal announcement until journalists began piecing it together from diplomatic leaks. Ursula von der Leyen appears to have conducted backroom diplomacy like a Cold War operative, not a modern democratic leader. The European Parliament has been left in the dark, national leaders blindsided, and citizens rightly furious. This is not how democracy works. And it certainly isn't how the European project was built.

Sadly, this isn’t a one-off mistake. It’s part of a pattern. Von der Leyen has long governed through an aloof, top-down style, often pushing bold statements without consensus and policies without proper groundwork. From vaccine procurement blunders to opaque dealings on energy and AI, the signs have been there for years. Turnberry just makes it impossible to ignore.

The question we must now ask is uncomfortable but necessary: Who is Ursula von der Leyen really working for? Because it is becoming clear that her loyalties do not lie with the European citizen, the European worker, or the European farmer. They lie elsewhere, in the elitist corridors of power, perhaps even in the gilded banquet rooms of golf resorts owned by American populists.

The European Parliament must act. The leaders of Europe’s member states must act. And above all, European citizens must demand accountability. Von der Leyen may have smiled as she signed away Europe’s standards and autonomy, but the damage she has done will echo far beyond Turnberry.

Europe deserves better than a Commission President who treats the Union as her private fiefdom. Europe deserves transparency. It deserves courage. And it deserves a leader who doesn’t fold at the first sign of an American handshake.

Because Turnberry wasn’t a trade agreement. It was a warning.