Donald Trump doing a bang-up job weakening the U.S. by waging a counterproductive and illegal war, bending the knee to Russia and China, thwarting green energy investment, ballooning the debt, fostering unprecedented corruption and instability, hobbling international trade, stomping out dissent, persecuting enemies, attacking civil society, and corrupting the rule of law. His empty-handed return from the China summit after lavishing (unreciprocated) praise on China’s President Xi and throwing doubt on support for Taiwan reflects America’s decline. We are in no sense leading the Free World. (Amazon founder and owner/destroyer of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos must be a shameless sycophant and an ignoramus if he thinks Trump is more “mature” than he was in his first term.)
America’s claim to exceptionalism (built on its defense of a stable global order, generosity in humanitarian aid, and opposition to thugs) and its reputation for can-do optimism have been severely frayed under Trump. Across all political ideologies, Pew found: “Majorities of Black (66%), Hispanic (64%) and white adults (57%) say the country’s best years are behind us, as do 53% of Asian adults.” Frankly, their conclusion is not unreasonable. Unless we get off the MAGA freight train barreling toward irreversible decline and permanent chaos, America’s future will be bleak.
Given the betrayal by the U.S. and the threats from Russia and China, the EU deserves more recognition for upholding democratic values and at least partially filling the vacuum created by Trump’s retreat from reality.
As Matthias Matthijs and Nathalie Tocci write, Trump’s erratic, aggressive, and unhinged behavior “has jolted European leaders into working more effectively as a bloc and taking stronger action to shore up their own defense, trade, energy security, and democratic resilience.” The authors urge European leaders to build on the anti-Trump backlash to craft a pro-democracy agenda that includes proposals to “strengthen the rule of law, protect European borders while remaining open to regular immigration, continue to boost the continent’s defense, pursue greater energy security by transitioning from fossil fuels and diversifying their energy sources, and seek economic renewal through significantly higher investment and deeper single-market integration.”
This week, EU leaders managed to clear the way for a trade deal with the U.S. to accompany their own bilateral deals with other trading partners (e.g. Mexico, India). While Trump has abandoned the idea that we prosper when we support a free trade network, the EU has created its own parallel free trade agreements, leaving Trump to flail and America to lose markets.
European powers’ most impressive accomplishment may be its consistent support for Ukraine. Unlike Trump, they have not abandoned Ukraine nor forced it toward capitulation. The EU’s steadiness has allowed Ukraine to gain ground and further batter Russia. Trump picked the losing side (Russia), while European powers stuck with Ukraine, which has established drone superiority and become arguably the most potent military force in Europe.
America under Trump is becoming the dispensable nation.
The contrast between the U.S. under Trump and European powers could not be more vivid. America may be in an authoritarian tailspin, but European countries, as historian Anne Applebaum recently noted, have adhered to “the rule of law, the separation of powers, judicial independence, freedom of speech, equality before the law, and the idea that governments are accountable to citizens.” While Trump genuflects to Russia and China, runs roughshod over democratic institutions, and systematically destroys our international reputation, we can be relieved that those democratic attributes continue to flourish somewhere on the planet.
We should not be surprised that as Trump and his ilk have followed Putin’s model of deriding the EU and showing disdain for their liberal values. The endurance and success of democratic allies that Trump has abused no doubt rankles him. As Applebaum recalled: “At a speech in Munich last February, the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, declared that America and Europe are bound together not by values, not by a commitment to democracy, but by Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry—by blood, soil, DNA and the distant past, in other words, not the present or future.” Applebaum noted that Rubio, like Vladimir Putin, baselessly denigrated “modern Europe as a continent overwhelmed by migrants, crime, and decay.”
Vice President JD Vance joined the chorus and accused Europe of “civilizational suicide” by letting in too many immigrants. In words that thrill neo-Nazis (and echo the original ones), he insisted that you just can’t allow “culturally incompatible” immigrants come into an Aryan German country. (Does he know the U.S. became the world’s most powerful and prosperous nation after taking in 10. 4 million immigrants between 1861 and 1890, another 14.5M between 1900 and 1924, and 70M since 1965?)
MAGA disdain for Europe is remarkable, considering they claim to be saviors of “Western civilization,” the intellectual and cultural heritage of Europe. They fawn over cathedrals and cultural contributions, but are unremittingly hostile to Europe’s liberal political traditions being incorporated into our political DNA. MAGA cultists, not left-leaning Democrats, threaten to undermine the most significant achievements of Western civilization (e.g., respect for the individual, tolerance, rejection of absolute monarchy).
To be certain, the EU has its problems (e.g., productivity, the rise of antisemitism) but it must be doing something right if its violent crime rate is a fraction of the U.S., its people live longer, and 7 of the 10 happiest countries in the world are EU members.
In short, the EU is punching above its weight. We should salute European leaders who have steered clear of Trump’s illegal war, defended Ukraine against bullies in the Kremlin and the White House, stood up for human rights (whether in Kyiv or Gaza), continued to advance clean energy, and refused to give AI and tech billionaires free rein to invade their people’s privacy and manipulate them through opaque algorithms.
European powers remind Americans that free people have agency to reject the siren call of nationalism, racism, isolationism, militarism, and authoritarianism. Refusing to capitulate to Trump’s demands or cower from his bullying, the EU has remained undaunted and courageous in upholding humane, democratic, tolerant, and fact-based government at home while supporting a rules-based order internationally.
We should be rooting (as the world rooted for Britain before the U.S. entered WWII) for the countries that bequeathed us Western civilization to prosper, innovate, and thrive. The EU cannot replace the U.S., but it deserves high praise for stepping into the breach when America lost its bearings.
The sole, cold comfort we can all take right now is that Republicans are doing a wonderful job of slitting their own wrists, chewing at their own faces, getting out of dodge, tucking tail just the when the moment calls for a sheriff --- all by their little selves, bless their little cultified hearts!
Let's figure out ways to keep them in self-destruct mode faster than Lindsey Graham can grope his way toward a fainting couch.
I want this to be true. I live in Europe, my daughter will hold an EU passport, and I have chosen this continent precisely because it still runs on rules rather than whim. But this piece is a love letter, and love letters make poor strategy documents.
The flattering version omits the bill. Europe found its nerve because it had no choice, not because it discovered virtue. The defense buildup is real, but it is being funded by debt and by squeezing the same welfare states that produce those long life expectancies and happy populations the column celebrates. You cannot spend the peace dividend twice. Europe is now learning that its democratic resilience was always partly an American subsidy, and the invoice has arrived. That is a harder, more honest story than “undaunted.”
The same nationalism the piece congratulates Europe for resisting is polling first or second in France, runs Italy, and is climbing in Germany. Brussels held the line this cycle. The electorates underneath it are drifting toward exactly the model the column says Europe rejected.
Applebaum’s rule of law and separation of powers are not a European character trait. They are a fragile, contested settlement, and treating them as a finished achievement is how you lose them.
Salute the EU for stepping into the breach, fine. But a continent congratulating itself for being undaunted has stopped counting how many of its own voters are already on the other train.
I will say though, I am cautiously optimistic.
Johan 🐌