Courting a historic break with Europe

Trump is not interested in leading the West

Donald Trump’s new national security strategy lists reinforcing America’s alliances as a major objective. Yet in the first year of his embattled presidency, he has so undermined our ties to Europe that we could be on the verge of a break in the seven-decade trans-Atlantic alliance.

Trump is the first U.S. president since World War II who does not seem to consider himself the leader of the democratic West. His populist America First platform has opened deep fissures in his relations with European leaders.

Changing the way the U.S. government talks about our oldest allies, he describes the European Union more as an economic competitor than a leading strategic partner. In contrast, prior U.S. presidents regarded the European project as a force multiplier for shared interests across the Atlantic in democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Trump’s distancing from Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May is strikingly different from his praise of autocratic leaders Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia. He also seems more often at war with NATO than leading it. While he is right to criticize the allies for insufficient defense spending, he should avoid demonizing Europe to the American public. Europe fought to end the Bosnia and Kosovo wars with us, stood by us on 9/11, and still has troops with us in Afghanistan.

Recent U.S. presidents conceived ambitious projects with Europe. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton guided NATO toward peace with Russia at the end of the Cold War. George W. Bush persuaded NATO to adopt a counterterrorism focus after 9/11. Trump has failed to undertake anything close to this in strategic importance. And as NATO allies Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic embrace far right populism, Trump has failed to do what John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did so effectively at critical moments of the Cold War — stand up for the democratic values at the heart of our ties to Europe.

Trump’s refugee policies have left the EU shouldering nearly all the burden during the most serious refugee crisis since 1945. His disavowal of free trade and the Paris climate accord, withdrawal from two United Nations agencies, and distancing from the Iran nuclear deal and NAFTA have rattled European leaders.

The German firm Körber-Stiftung found 88% of Germans say their country’s priority defense partner should be the EU, not the U.S. And 62% of Germans in a Pew poll this year viewed America unfavorably, up from 38% a year earlier. This trend across Europe translates into a deep loss of U.S. influence on a continent that remains its largest trade partner, largest investor in its economy and largest collection of allies worldwide.

U.S. Foreign Service officers of my generation considered ourselves guardians of an alliance with Europe that was vital for our economy, security and values. All our presidents were wired for leadership with their European counterparts. We saw the alliance with Europe as one of the great American achievements of the past century.

Yet Trump displays little interest in writing the next chapter of the West. Instead, we are left with clashing substance and symbols even in the once special relationship between Britain and America. How else to understand the unprecedented repudiation of a U.S. president by the archbishop of Canterbury and the British prime minister after Trump foolishly retweeted a vile British anti-Muslim website.

Europe still matters to America. We are together the central organizer of the most important global institutions. We remain the most powerful political, military and economic force for good. Most Americans still support NATO, free trade and strong ties to Europe, even as our president heads resolutely in the opposite direction. We’ll need to remember where to find that strength and leadership when we rebuild America’s strategic position in Europe, and its global reputation, after the Trump era comes mercifully to an end.