Europeans are worried that Trump will abandon Europe. Europe keeps rebooting this sad movie to turn the proto-imperial EU into a full empire.
Trump didn't walk away from NATO in his first term despite bluntly telling European NATO states that they must spend more on defense--as they promised Obama they'd do by this year. Seriously, while Europe has proven it is not prepared to face Russia, how much worse would its war-generated defense crisis be without Trump?
Remember, Europeans didn't take comfort from Biden announcing America "is back." And they said his defeat in Afghanistan was reason to worry about him.
And don't forget that NATO was in a "mid-life crisis" in the Obama administration with European allies worried about American commitment.
It's almost as if Europeans want to worry about America. We're too distant or we're too overwhelming in power--say, speaking of the European view of the Clinton presidency.
And the most European of Europeans are the European Union apparatchiki, who need a reason to kick America-led NATO out of Europe.
So when you see Macron basically ignoring the American military role in deterring the Russians and the recent large military aid package, wonder why:
With the zeal of a convert, Macron argues that the stakes in Ukraine include not only Ukrainians’ future but also the future of Europe: “The condition sine qua non for our security is that Russia does not win the war of aggression it is waging against Ukraine. This is imperative.” Even though the US Congress has finally passed a supplemental aid bill for Ukraine (as well as Israel and Taiwan), Europeans must recognise that the US has only two priorities: “America first, which is legitimate, and China.”
Macron denies America has an interest in keeping Europe from being hostile as strongly as some isolationist conservatives here.
And Macron--in his so-called "Macron moment"--is trying to ride that to a more powerful European Union that strips away the prefix from the EU proto-imperial project. The zeal of a convert is just the tactical expression of whatever new crisis there is to exploit for that end. Gaining EU-wide support for France on something--anything--is the goal. Macron would sell out Ukraine to Russia--which he also tried to do before the war--or risk war with Russia in defense of Ukraine to get that. Or suck up to China.
With Macron the emperor--even if he wears a suit rather than flowing robes and a bejeweled crown.
Seriously people, it's not us that's the problem in trans-Atlantic relations. It's them.
NOTE: The base image was made from DALL-E.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.