Of Daddies and Queens — from Trump to von der Leyen — and who’s really in charge in Europe

This week’s episode of EU Confidential comes to you from the Europa building in Brussels. We’ve been covering not one but two high-stakes gatherings, starting with NATO’s June 24-25 summit in The Hague, where Donald Trump got the royal treatment. June 26 brought the EUCO summit in Brussels, where the real work began of figuring out how to fund the new 5 percent defense spending pledge that countries had taken on. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO’s Clea Caulcutt and Nick Vinocur to unpack what went down at both meetings. Later we head into the real palace intrigue: The European Commission’s threat to pull a minor Green Deal law triggered a revolt among centrist lawmakers and is now raising big questions about Ursula von der Leyen’s political future. We break it down with POLITICO’s sustainability reporter Marianne Gros, senior climate correspondent Karl Mathiesen, and politics reporter Max Griera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices