A new term for Donald Trump at the White House
Romanian politicians hail the return of Donald Trump as president of the United States
Bogdan Matei, 21.01.2025, 14:00
Nobody was left indifferent by the Republican Donald Trump getting back the role he loves so much and which he missed for four years: president of the United States and, implicitly, the most powerful man on the planet. Politicians in Bucharest were no exception and hurried into congratulating Trump for his return at the White House.
According to the acting president, Klaus Iohannis, Romania, a close strategic partner of the United States, wishes the American leader “the best of success for this important new mandate. We need a strong and vibrant transatlantic link, to the benefit of our joint security”, wrote Iohannis on the X platform.
The second most powerful figure in the Romanian state, according to the constitutional architecture, the Liberal Speaker of the Senate, Ilie Bolojan, wished President Trump success in his new mandate and expressed his belief that the friendship between the two countries would get stronger. His return to the White House is a historic moment, which will have positive echoes as far as Romania is concerned, both in terms of security and major investments, stated in turn the Social Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. From the opposition, the leader of the Save Romania Union (USR) Elena Lasconi, has stated that a new chapter begins in the history of the United States, and America is to Romania an element of support in terms of national security.
Beyond the unanimously festive messages conveyed by the Romanian politicians, the Bucharest press notes that the only domestic party leader invited to the ceremonies in Washington was the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) (nationalist, in opposition), George Simion. He went there as vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), a political family linked to the American Republicans through certain ideological affinities.
Otherwise, commentators say, Romania would have no reason to worry about the new Donald Trump era, because the two countries are allies in NATO and have a bilateral strategic partnership that they can develop. Analysts also recall that, during Trump’s first term, Romania was among the first allied countries to align with the White House leader’s requirement to increase defense spending to 2.5% of the GDP.
As an added advantage, Romania’s military purchases are made predominantly from the United States. Moreover, Bucharest has signed a loan agreement of 920 million dollars to modernize its military capabilities, and part of this money will go to armament factories in Romania, which will become the only producer in Europe of ammunition for Abrams tanks. (MI)