Are Trump's America and Europe heading for divorce?

For more than seven decades, the trans-Atlantic alliance with Europe had been central to US defence and foreign policies, but that’s not the case anymore.

In his second term, US President Donald Trump has not just withdrawn the commitment to European security but has increasingly aligned the United States with Russia, the principal adversary of Europe.

It’s not just in the security domain that the United States and Europe have diverged under Trump, but it extends to tariffs, the broader geopolitics, and even domestic politics.

ALSO READ: Is Putin using Trump to kill Nato?

Here we highlight four areas of divergence that suggest the United States and Trump might be headed towards a divorce under Trump.

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Trump threatens to kill Nato in Europe

In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Trump said that he would encourage Russia to invade more European countries like Ukraine if they would not do his bidding. He said that he would tell Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” with Nato allies.

Trump’s disdain for Nato dates back to his first term when he repeatedly trashed allies for not spending enough on defence.

As a result, at last month’s Nato Summit, the allies committed to raising their defence spending to 5 per cent of their GDP that Trump had asked for. But there is no guarantee that Trump would stay committed to the collective defence principle that is at the foundation of Nato.

Moreover, Trump has consistently refused to commit US backstop to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

As a result, there are concerns that Russia could use Trump to essentially kill Nato.

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In the absence of US support, there are fears that European members of Nato would not respond to a Russian aggression and that would essentially mean the death of Nato and open vast swathes of Europe for Russian advance. Russia is likely to attempt such aggression against smaller Nato members that rely most on Nato’s protective umbrella.

If these nations fail to respond on their own or fellow Nato nations fail to mobilise militarily to their defence under the collective defence principle, Nato would be essentially dead as there would be essentially no Nato without the collective defence principle, Jamie Metzl, a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, previously told Firstpost.

“If Putin gets anything resembling a victory in Ukraine, what he is going to do next is to needle a Nato member, such as Lithuania, and even if Russia goes just 50 feet inside Lithuania, the country is understandably going to invoke Article 5. If Nato fails to mobilise in Lithuania’s support, then the collective defence principle of Nato would be dead and Putin would have defeated Nato with just a minor incursion with perhaps a small contingent of ‘little green men’ that he used in Crimea,” said Metzl, who previously served in the White House National Security Council.

Trump & Europe’s opposite take on geopolitics

For Europe, Russia is the biggest security threat. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has plunged Europe into the worst security crisis since the World War II.

For Trump, however, Russia is not an adversary. He has sought a partner in Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whom he has fawned over for decades.

While European leaders have pressed him for sanctions on Russia, Trump has sought a reset in political and economic ties with Russia. He has sought joint initiatives with Russia in the energy sector.

Trump has also parroted Russian propaganda and falsely blamed Nato, former US President Joe Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the ongoing war with Russia.

The divergence is not just limited to Europe. It extends to other conflicts as well, most notably the war in the Gaza Strip.

While Europe has often criticised the Israeli war in Gaza and has worked to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave, Trump has completely endorsed Israeli war that has killed tens of thousands of people and levelled the majority of enclave. As per Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own assessments, civilian casualties are more than double of terrorists’ in Gaza.

Trump has not just completely endorsed Netanyahu’s policy, but has also vowed to annex Gaza and expel all Palestinians in what amounts to ethnic cleansing. He has said he would develop Gaza into a resort town.

Trump’s tariff war on Europe

Trump has also waged a tariff war on Ukraine, slapping 30 per cent tariffs on the European Union (EU).

The EU is the largest US trading partner. EU Maros Sefcovic has said that such tariffs will make the existing trade “almost impossible to continue”.

“If [the tariff] stays 30 [per cent]-plus, simply trading as we know it will not continue, with huge negative effects on both sides of the Atlantic. I will definitely do everything I can to prevent this super-negative scenario,” Sefcovic further said.

Trump’s regime change juggernaut

Trump and his allies have been openly interfering in domestic politics of European countries. They have openly supported far-right parties in various countries and have worked against moderate parties.

Trump has openly endorsed far-right, neo-Nazi party AfD in Germany. He also endorsed right-wing nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Polish presidential election. He has also put his weight behind the far-right National Rally in France.

Trump’s former ally, Elon Musk, has also personally endorsed AfD in Germany and vowed to oust the Labour Party in the United Kingdom and replace it with far-right Reform Party.