The Empty Chair at the Head of the Table
I read a headline today that struck a chord deeper than the usual political noise: Europe is worried the U.S. has “lost its way.” It is a heavy phrase. It doesn’t imply anger or disagreement; it implies grief.
For decades, the transatlantic alliance was built on a shared myth - that despite our differences, we were all reading from the same moral rulebook. But with President Trump’s latest threat to slap tariffs on eight NATO allies unless they support his bid to buy Greenland, that myth has officially been marked down for clearance.
The Price Tag on Loyalty
It is almost surreal to type this, but we are watching a U.S. President threaten to punish his closest friends - the UK, France, Germany - because they won’t help him annex the territory of another friend (Denmark). It turns the concept of an “ally” into a purely transactional arrangement.
The European leaders are calling it a “dangerous downward spiral.” They are realizing that the “leader of the free world” title isn’t being stolen; it’s being pawned. The “worry” mentioned in the Wall Street Journal isn’t about the tariffs themselves. Europe can survive a trade war. The worry is that the person sitting across the table no longer speaks the language of partnership, only the language of leverage.
The New Independence
There is a sense that Europe is finally waking up from a long, comfortable nap under the American security umbrella. If the U.S. is going to treat NATO like a protection racket (“Nice island you have there, shame if something happened to your car exports”), then Europe has no choice but to grow up.
It’s a painful realization. The American Dream used to be something the world aspired to. Now, for many of its oldest friends, the U.S. is becoming something to protect themselves from.