The European Union and the United States are increasingly distant

A few hours after the recent U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear sites, the new German chancellor Friedrich Merz praised the operation ordered by Trump, saying there was no reason to criticize the U.S. administration for the move it had made. This is not a given stance: most European leaders have avoided openly supporting the United States in such an explicit way. This is also because nearly all European countries have ended up quite marginalized in recent diplomatic maneuvers aimed at avoiding an escalation of the war between Israel and Iran. More broadly, Europe’s leadership has recently not even been taken into account in the long and somewhat muddled series of measures announced by Trump since he took office. Currently, Europe doesn’t seem to have much room to intervene in key diplomatic matters for the international community, including the negotiations on the war in Ukraine or the future of the Gaza Strip, among other things. The European Union and its leaders have also failed to respond in a unified way even when Trump announced — only to later backtrack — the introduction of massive and problematic tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States. This stalemate was especially seen with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, which were first confirmed and then doubled. Initially, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, had promised retaliation, only to opt for negotiations, thereby avoiding the start of a trade war. As the American daily Politico commented, all this highlights Europe’s growing marginalization in the eyes of the U.S. administration. «The U.S. has stopped pretending to consider Europe a significant player in international diplomacy,» reads Politico.

The growing tension between the United States and the European Union is fueled by an increasingly critical view from some members of the Trump administration. As reported by the Financial Times, a State Department document signed by a consultant close to Secretary of State Marco Rubio made this rift even more apparent. The text refers to a supposed drift of European countries away from democratic principles and accuses some political institutions on the continent of being against their own citizens. The document surprised many observers, not so much because of its contents — which partly reflect Trump’s usual rhetoric and feed an opinion already present in U.S. conservative circles — but because it was officially published by the State Department. The mistrust that part of the Trump administration holds toward the European Union also stems from the belief that the EU does not contribute adequately to its own defense.

For a long time, Trump has accused Europe of taking advantage of the military protection offered by the United States, which possesses an advanced military apparatus, cutting-edge technology, and one of the world’s most effective intelligence systems — all without proper acknowledgment. For this reason, Europe has been considering the possibility of rearming for months, in an effort to become more independent from the United States, now seen as less reliable than in the past. Trump himself, in recent months, has put considerable pressure on European leaders to increase military spending by NATO member states, raising it to 5% of their respective Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this regard, the American president recently shared a screenshot of a message from a contact saved in his phone as Mark Rutte — the Secretary General of NATO — which included the line: «You’ll achieve something no American president has managed in recent decades. Europe will pay a lot of money, as it should, and it will be your victory.» The reference is to the increase in the continent’s military spending. The message — if authentic — struck many observers as overly sycophantic, as if Rutte (the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands) were trying to “suck up” to Trump. In essence, the shared sentiment is that the United States now seems able to do without Europe, while Europe still cannot do without the United States.