During his first term in office, President Trump said the European Union established that he “as an enemy” and “harms the United States with trade.”
He repeatedly filed the charges at Cabinet meeting Wednesday, but in more lewd words: “The European Union was formed to ruin the United States. That's the purpose, and they did a good job of it.”
He then said he was preparing to strike Europe with 25% tariffs on cars and other goods.
After his warning that Europe is making itself better after Trump accepted Russia, the president's latest attacks came in addition to an increase in European leaders and analysts that he and his team of loyalists consider their traditional allies as European allies.
Some officials and analysts consider the Trump administration simply to be indifferent to Europe. Others see open hostility. However, fundamental relationships have changed and there is a common view that America is an unreliable and predictable ally.
Trump rejected NATO and coincided with Russia, a longtime major threat to the alliance. Vice President JD Vance is calling for the attack on European democracy and open doors to far-right parties. Billionaire Trump aide Elon Musk has escalated the light-empt against European leaders and openly endorsed the German extremist party.
This week, the US shocked European leaders alike, refusing to condemn Russia's Ukrainian invasion of the United Nations. Instead, it broke from its alliances and voted with all authoritarian governments, Russia, Belarus and North Korea.
European leaders are rushing to assess and mitigate the damage. British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer will arrive at the White House on Thursday. This is the second visit this week after French President Emmanuel Macron, who wants to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine and continue to engage in Europe. But Trump described himself as a destroyer, and Macron had little attempt to seduce him.
Friedrich Merz (69), a conservative politician likely to be Germany's next prime minister, has expressed strong doubts about the transatlantic ties that he and his country have committed to for decades.
On Sunday evening, after his party won the most votes in the German election, Merz listened to Trump, saying, “It is clear that Americans, this part of this administration is almost indifferent to the fate of Europe.”
He wondered whether the American nuclear umbrella against NATO would remain — and even if the alliance itself would continue to exist.
“My absolute priority is to strengthen Europe as soon as possible, so that in stages we will be able to achieve independence from America,” he said.
His comments are a surprising measure of the disappointment that European leaders felt about the American reversal of policy regarding Ukraine, perhaps due to full support of far-right parties that are diminishing the European government and supporting Russia.
Meltz's remarks reminded me of a 2017 statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a controversial alliance meeting with Trump. “The time when we can completely rely on others — they're a bit over,” she said. She encouraged Europeans to “take our destiny into our own hands.”
Her comments were viewed as potential earthquake changes, but a true redirection of European security policies never materialized. The problem is now becoming more serious, said Claudia Major, who directs security policy at the German Institute of International Security.
“In Munich, Vance declared a culture war and said, “Whether we're going to join us or not. We have the right value and you're doing it wrong,” she said. His speech, she added, “the country and democracy that have regained our freedom are against us.”
She's not alone in her reviews. Several analysts said the Trump administration's actions showed that it was not merely indifferent to Europe, but was trying to put it back. This distinction has real consequences for how Europe can respond.
“There is no doubt that there is an intention to destroy Europe, starting from Ukraine,” said Natalie Tocco, director of the Italian Institute of International Affairs. “Strengthening the powers on the far right contributes to our goal of destroying the European Union.”
The reason, she said, is that the Trump administration believes Europe is not just a competitor, but also an economic and ideological threat. They hope to undermine the power of the European Union to regulate trade, competition and hate speech. The latter is a major topic for Vance as he criticised what he called news media censorship and political correctness.
The European Union is the world's largest trade zone, and can oppose Washington on economic terms and represent the “economic enemy” Trump opposed in his first term.
As Columbia Law School's Anu Bradford called it, they are being used against high-tech and social media companies whose leaders surround and subsidize Trump, like Musk, who owns social media platform X.
The Brussels Effect is the power of the European Union to establish global rules and norms, particularly important in the fields of climate regulation, digital competition, platform accountability and artificial intelligence.
But some warned that if the Trump administration feels it needs to destroy that threat, there is little that European countries can do to appease the White House.
If Trump and his team are trying to “push the far right to destroy European democracy, then purchasing American LNG or weapons in Europe is not important,” Tocco of the Italian Institute of International Affairs said. By increasing the dependency, she added, “it could result in a kind of double suicide.”
The US-European relations tend to progress in cycles with important strategic debates over Iraq, Afghanistan and even Vietnam in the past. But now the conflict is ideological, strategic and economic, said Kamille Grand, a former NATO and French official of the Council of Europe on Foreign Relations.
“It's a huge shock for Europeans to face hostility at once on all three sides,” Grand said. “If you add all three, you can wonder if you're no longer a partner, you're a rival, and perhaps even an enemy.”
All European countries are reassessing where it plays against Washington, he said. What's not clear is whether, like in Trump's first term, “will you end up getting sick, but you're starting out, or whether the entire relationship is off track, or you'll be on an unpleasant roller coaster.”
Linas Kojara, director of the Center for Geopolitics and Security Research in Villinias, Lithuania, continues to gently urge “there is no real alternative to US safety assurance.” “To declare that transatlantic relations have collapsed is like getting off a ship in the middle of the ocean, as no other ships are visible.”
So for now, he said, “Europe has to 'suck' Trump's criticism.
However, Alex Young, former chief of MI6, the UK's foreign intelligence agency, told the BBC last week. “We are in a new era where international relations are generally not determined by rules or multilateral institutions,” he said, but “by dealing with strong people.”
Matthew Chloenich, a former Department of Defense official currently on Washington's Atlantic Council, calls himself a “normal Republican” and says he has “had a bit too much hysteria over the past few weeks.”
After all, the first Trump terminology stated, “many harsh rhetoric against allies and many careful languages against Putin were marked, but ultimately NATO was strengthened.”
Others aren't that sure.
Trump said Nigel Gould Davis, an International Institute for Strategic Studies who speaks about Ukraine's Russia, is engaged in a policy of rapid, unilateral concession to basic interests, in order to persuade the attackers to stop the fight, and to persuade the invaders to stop the fight.
“The established name of such a policy,” he said, “it's a 'strategic surrender.' ”
It is not clear whether Trump will produce the results he wants, he said. What's clear is that it undermines the alliance's trust in America's credibility and common sense.
“It's not that we're no one,” European Parliament president Roberta Metsora said in a speech in Washington on Thursday.
Metsola and head of EU diplomats, Kaja Kallas, traveled to Washington this week to talks with Trump officials, but a meeting between Secretary of State, Karas and Marco Rubio was cancelled.
“Quaranty may seem safe,” Metora added. “Until you get stuck,” he added.
Jeanna Smialek contributed a report from Brussels.
