US politicians break rank at Munich Security Conference to hit out at ‘destructive’ president and urge Europe to stand up to Trump

Donald Trump’s most unbridled critics at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference have not been Europeans but Americans – and not just Democrats.

A few Republicans, out of earshot of the US president’s favoured Fox News, have had the courage to challenge Trump’s diet of tariffs and unpredictability.

The criticism ends what little remained of the tradition that the US delegation to the conference limits criticism of the commander in chief abroad.