Putin ‘would eat you for lunch,’ Harris tells Trump

HOWDY. There was an unofficial icebreaker question as U.S. diplomats hosted a reception for reporters and activists Tuesday evening in Brussels: Are you staying up to watch the debate? Playbook did meet one committed American foreign service officer who planned to power nap until the face-off between Vice President Kamala Harris and ex-President Donald Trump started at 3 a.m. CET. For the rest of you who opted for a decent night’s rest … don’t worry. This Wednesday edition of Brussels Playbook has you covered.
Eddy Wax will be holding the Playbook pen for the rest of the week.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris faced off for their first U.S. presidential debate in the early hours of this morning. After a strong start by Trump and a nervous first 15 minutes for Harris, the Democrat set the perfect trap.
Triggering Trump 101: During a question about immigration, Harris invited those watching to attend one of Trump’s signature rallies, saying: “He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early because of exhaustion and boredom.” Trump walked straight into the trap (as he would repeatedly do over the course of the debate), ranting about the size of his rallies, then pivoting to repeat a (false rumor) that immigrants are eating pet cats and dogs. All Harris had to do was laugh.
Early reviews: Harris won — and it wasn’t close, write our Stateside colleagues in their takeaways. The verdict among voters in an instant CNN/SSRS survey confirmed that read, and even some of the Fox News crew didn’t think Trump did well. Pop star Taylor Swift evidently liked what she saw from Harris, because she endorsed the Democrat right after the debate.
**A message from Connect Europe: After a 32-year journey, ETNO is now Connect Europe! Our new identity reflects our evolved strategy. Our purpose is connecting people, businesses and communities across Europe. Our members connect 270+ million Europeans and represent more than 70 % of the telecom sector investment. The mission of our Association is to shape policies that foster innovation, investment, and competitiveness. Learn more.**
Now on to the other highlights/lowlights (delete as appropriate) …
On Ukraine: Trump was asked whether he wanted Kyiv to win the war against Russia. His answer: “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives.” Asked again whether it was in the best interests of the U.S. for Ukraine to win, Trump said it was in the country’s interest “to get this war finished” and added his oft-repeated claim that Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he was in the White House.
Putin is “a dictator who would eat you for lunch,” Harris responded. “Our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO,” the vice president said. If it wasn’t for the Biden administration’s assistance to Ukraine, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”
Orbán gets a shoutout: Harris goaded Trump, saying world leaders are “laughing” at the former president. Trump responded: “Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart prime minister of Hungary. They said, ‘why is the whole world blowing up?’ He said, ‘Because you need Trump back as president.’”
What a difference two months makes: Last night was a far cry from the debate two months ago, where Joe Biden effectively knocked himself out of the presidential campaign with his muddled performance, our Stateside colleague Zach Montellaro writes in to say. This time round, Trump only really landed the attack most Republicans wanted to see him hit — that Harris was just a continuation of Biden — during his closing statement. And Harris mostly successfully dodged what Trump was throwing at her and bypassed questions from the moderators about her U-turns on a number of issues since her 2020 campaign.
Trump’s verdict: Republicans blamed the moderators for Trump’s lackluster performance, objecting to their repeated fact-checking of the former president. Trump posted to his own social media site: “I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!”
IS THIS THE “SLOW AGONY” DRAGHI WAS TALKING ABOUT? One more week of suspense. One more week of Brussels absorbed in power politics rather than improving citizens’ lives. That’s where we’re at, with the last-minute cancellation of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s scheduled meeting with top MEPs to lay out her plan for the EU executive — postponing it until Sept. 17, when the Parliament will convene in Strasbourg.
The official explanation: The Slovenian parliament ought to get the chance to rubber stamp its new Commission nominee Marta Kos, said the Commission and Parliament in coordinated statements. It’s a show of deference to the national government after von der Leyen leaned hard on Ljubljana to swap out its male candidate for a woman. (That vote is slated for Friday, but fresh demands from Slovenian MPs, backed by ex-PM Janez Janša, threaten to further delay it, local media report.)
So now what? The reality is that this gives von der Leyen more time to pressure capitals to reconsider their male nominees (here’s looking at you, Valletta). It also gives everyone else more time to lobby, haggle over portfolios and plant leaks to influence von der Leyen, Barbara Moens and Max Griera write in to report.
Socialist ultimatum: Europe’s Socialists are seizing on the delay to make a more serious push for their demands: Giving Nicolas Schmit, who came in second in the EU election as the Socialists’ lead candidate, a job in her new College; denying a top-tier post to Italy’s Raffaele Fitto (who is from Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy); ensuring gender balance and handing the employment and social rights portfolio to a Socialist. “If these expectations are not met … it will be very difficult, even impossible, to support the commissioners presented by Ursula von der Leyen,” warns a press release jointly issued by the Socialists and Democrats group in the Parliament and the Party of European Socialists. 
Reality check: Though it’s the most concrete threat from the socialist family, who’ve struggled to come up with a common line after angst first started brewing in August, diplomats and officials aren’t taking it too seriously.
It’s not like their own members are helping: Maltese S&D MEP Matjaž Nemec posted about his meeting with Glenn Micallef, Malta’s (Socialist) Commission nominee, and boasted Valletta wouldn’t succumb to pressure to swap out candidates like Romania and Slovenia did. Never mind that Romania and Slovenia did so in service of gender balance, a stated goal of the Socialists. 
Pointless pause … Von der Leyen will “take the calls, but it won’t change much,” said one EU diplomat. 
… Or auspicious opening? A European Parliament official said the Slovenian procedure gives von der Leyen another week for “fine tuning” the distribution of responsibilities. One beneficiary: Czech nominee Jozef Síkela, who’s now considered the frontrunner for the trade portfolio instead of Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra, an EU diplomat and an official told POLITICO’s Camille Gijs and Koen Verhelst.
SCHOLZ GOES HARD: Germany’s decision to impose new border controls have sown confusion and alarm among its neighbors, who fear the ramifications for Europe’s Schengen free movement area and the knock-on hit to the EU economy. But many migration experts and political analysts warn the measures won’t provide a long-term fix — and may end up inspiring a further voter backlash when Germans see they don’t work, James Angelos reports.
Jeers: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the German move “unacceptable.”
Cheers: “Welcome to the club,” Viktor Orbán tweeted to Scholz.
The details: Er, we don’t have many, because the specifics of Scholz’s plan have yet to be fully disclosed. What we do know is that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Germany wants to detain migrants who arrive in the country for up to five weeks close to the border in order to assess whether they have a right to claim asylum in Germany or whether they’d previously applied elsewhere and should to be returned.
Sound familiar? That’s because Germany appears to be an early adopter of the European Union’s asylum pact model, our Berlin Playbook colleague Hans von der Burchard writes in. Reminder: The EU plans to build asylum-seeker detention and screening centers at its external borders (on the Greek islands for instance), which are expected to be operation in 2026. Germany appears to be setting up a similar interim solution at the national level to limit irregular migrants.
Back to Hungary: A Commission spokesperson on Tuesday called Budapest’s plan to bus migrants to Brussels “unacceptable,” and said the Commission is “standing ready to use all our powers under the treaty.” 
MUTED MEDIA STRATEGY: That Mario Draghi’s 400-page prescription for saving the European economy (mostly) didn’t leak to the media before it was officially released is a wonder. That he hasn’t done much press since then to explain his call for €800 billion in new investments annually … makes you wonder. Noting the lack of media push beyond Monday’s press conference — Draghi hasn’t given interviews to the Continent’s major broadsheets — the Economist’s Stanley Pignal mused, “It’s almost as if the European Commission (who asked him to write it) wanted the least possible exposure for it.” 
We might never hear from Mario Draghi again is the prediction from Paul Dallison, POLITICO’s deputy Brussels editor and a veteran journalist in the EU capital. Recalling similar reports from, coincidentally or not, other ex-Italian prime ministers — essentially forgotten after some initial fanfare — Paul anticipates the Meloni report in 2029. 
Letta doesn’t let up: One of those ex-Italian prime ministers, Enrico Letta, is making himself ubiquitous to promote his own report, completed in April, still sitting for interviews and even traveling to Iceland to present it.
HUNGARY WINS OIL STANDOFF: After months of tense standoff with Ukraine over its Russian oil sanctions, Hungary has managed to broker a deal with Kyiv that will keep millions of barrels flowing, despite an EU embargo, Veronika Melkozerova and Gabriel Gavin report.
The big Russian fuel rebrand: Responding to a question from POLITICO on Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed that Kyiv had given its blessing for the agreement. Under the sanctions workaround, Hungary will take ownership of the Russian oil before it crosses the border into Ukraine, at which point it will be considered Hungarian oil and therefore not subject to restrictions imposed on Moscow’s Lukoil. 
No questions asked: The Hungarians “announced that they are currently the owners of the product transiting through Ukraine and we are happy with that,” Shmyhal said.
Victory lap: Although Hungary will end up paying more for the same oil as a result of the deal, Prime Minister Orbán will be hoping it will be enough to maintain the country’s fuel prices, which are the lowest in Europe. Facing fines from the EU and sluggish growth, profiting off cheap Russian fuel has become one of his government’s most reliable revenue-raisers.
BLINKEN AND LAMMY IN KYIV: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will visit Ukraine together today. It’s the perfect opportunity for Kyiv to press for permission to use long-range missiles to target sites inside Russia, report Joe Gould, Nahal Toosi and Paul McLeary. And with a top Republican lawmaker suggesting Washington might be ready to loosen the restrictions, the timing couldn’t be better for the Ukrainians. 
TAX IS BACK ON THE MENU FOR EU ENFORCEMENT: “On a scale from one to 100 of surprise and no surprise, I think I’m in 99,” EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said after judges at the European Union’s highest court handed her massive vindication on Tuesday. 
“Pipeline” of cases: After affirming that the Commission was right to order Apple to backpay upwards of €13 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland, the court is opening the door to a “pipeline” of new cases that use state aid laws to tackle multinationals’ sweetheart deals with national governments. The Fair Play newsletter looks ahead to the next targets, for Competition Pro subscribers.
PARANOIA SETS IN AT CASA MELONI: It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, after her culture minister admitted trying to hire a lover as a consultant. As Hannah Roberts writes in to report, the pressure is taking its toll.
Kicking out the cops: Meloni, who comes from a far-right political movement that always identified as outsiders, is so worried about plots and leaks that she has ordered police to be kept out of the first floor of the Chigi Palace where she works with her closest collaborators, according to a report in La Stampa. 
Meloni’s spokesman forcefully denied the story, saying she had full confidence in the police. However, the police union said it had verified the report and officers had been moved from Meloni’s floor. The move was unprecedented, they said, adding that it was not up to Meloni to decide how to manage her security.
Who’s the one snooping? Meanwhile, the woman at the center of the culture ministry scandal was banned from entering the Italian parliament on Tuesday after filming “sensitive sites” with her sunglasses and posting the footage to Instagram. Seriously. Elena Giordano has the story. 
— Ambassadors meet in Coreper II at 9:30 a.m.
— Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager meets with Andrea Marván, chairwoman of the Mexican Economic Competition Commission.
— EU High Representative Josep Borrell is in Lebanon.
— Court of Justice of the EU rules in case NSD v Council, regarding restrictive measures against Russia for undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
— Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli meets with the President of the European Women’s Lobby Iliana Balabanova.
— Commissioner Thierry Breton holds a video conference call with Peter Kyle, the U.K.’s state secretary for science and technology.
— Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Manila, Philippines; meets with government representatives and investors to promote the EU as an issuer.
— European Council President Charles Michel visits Kuwait.
WEATHER: High of 15C, rainy.
“IT’S THE WORST PLACE I’VE EVER WORKED” … that’s how one employee at a confectionery store inside Brussels Midi described the train station. Despite a beefed-up police presence at Midi — Belgium’s gateway to Europe — crime is rampant, exposing Brussels’ failures, Elena Giordano and Seb Starcevic write.
SPOTTED … at the rentrée reception hosted by the U.S. Mission to the EU’s public diplomacy section: The U.S. Mission’s Libby Gitenstein, Norman Thatcher Scharpf and Donna Scharpf, Deb Lynn, Gavin Sundwall, Eric Barbee, Teresa Dominguez-Piedade, Sophie Coremans, Aroosha Rana, Izzy Watson, Fanny Trang, Paul Baldwin, Zulina Bartholomew and Kamy Le Tran.
And among the guests … Natasha Burley of the Australian Embassy; Susanne Connolly of the Canadian Mission to the EU; U.K. Mission’s Letisha Lunin and Caitlin Griffith; Defend Democracy’s Alice Stollmeyer; Brussels Binder’s Audrey-Flore Ngomsik; Bloomberg’s Kevin Whitehall; FT’s Henry Foy; Euronews’ Jorge Liboreiro. And from POLITICO: Khushbu Shah, Stuart Lau, Barbara Moens, Suzanne Lynch, Camille Gijs and (departing early, your Playbooker) Sarah Wheaton.
Time of transition: It was a passing of the torch of sorts, with Deputy Chief of Mission Thatcher Scharpf making one of his first public appearances in this role. Meanwhile, it was the last public event for Minister Counselor for Public Affairs Deb Lynn, who is retiring from public service. Ambassador Mark Gitenstein is also planning to leave Brussels in the coming months — setting up Scharpf to be the top U.S. government rep in Brussels for EU relations.
NEW JOB I: Bert Versmessen, previously ambassador to Rwanda, is returning to Brussels as the new deputy permanent representative of Belgium to the EU. 
NEW JOB II: Colin Scicluna has joined the European Commission’s directorate general for communication as an adviser, having left his role as head of Cabinet to Commissioner Dubravka Šuica. It means Šuica, who is staying on as Croatia’s commissioner, will have to find a new Cabinet chief for the coming five-year term.
CONDOLENCES: Croatian MEP Fred Matić, a former minister of veterans’ affairs, died last month at the age of 62 after complications from a gallstone operation. Tributes here.
Stepping in: Marko Vesligaj is replacing Matić as an MEP and will continue to serve as mayor of the small Croatian town Pregrada — “of course, without any financial compensation,” he said in a post on LinkedIn.
BIRTHDAYS: MEP Dan-Ștefan Motreanu; Former MEPs Maria Spyraki, Dino Giarrusso, Laura Ferrara, Miroslav Mikolášik and Kerstin Westphal; POLITICO’s Joe Schatz; Bird & Bird’s Francine Cunningham; Permanent Representative to the OECD of Czechia Aleš Chmelař; Former European Green Party Secretary-General Mar Garcia; Journalist Caroline De Gruyter; Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. National Day of Catalonia.
THANKS TO: Barbara Moens, Max Griera, Gabriel Gavin, Hannah Roberts, Camille Gijs, Elena Giordano, Stuart Lau, Edith Hancock and Eddy Wax; Playbook reporter Šejla Ahmatović and producer Catherine Bouris.
**A message from Connect Europe: Did you know that 76% of Europeans view top-notch connectivity as a game-changer? Connect Europe is pushing for bold telecom and competition policies to boost our digital landscape. We’re talking serious investment and innovation to keep Europe competitive and secure. Want the juicy details? Dive into our members’ response to the EC’s White Paper on mastering Europe’s digital infrastructure needs.**
SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | London Playbook PM | Playbook Paris | EU Election Playbook | Berlin Playbook | Global Playbook | POLITICO Confidential | Sunday Crunch | EU Influence | London Influence | China Watcher | Berlin Bulletin | Living Cities | D.C. Playbook | D.C. Influence | All our POLITICO Pro policy morning newsletters