Why does the Trump world do not like Europe so deeply – and what Europe can do about it

-Analysis-

PARIS – For decades, anti-American attitudes have circulated in Europe. Now we are witnessing the rise of a distinctly anti-European feeling within the Trump administration. Transatlantic tensions are not new – France has played its role, from President Charles de Gaulle’s decision to withdraw from NATO military command to the episode of “Freedom Fries” after former French president Chirac refused to join the invasion in Iraq.

But like the Wall Street Journal irony notes“You knew anti-Americanism-welcome to anti-Europeanism.” The term is so unfamiliar that even spelling is uncertain.

Never before has an American administration has been as openly hostile to the European Union – more towards the entire European project than individual member states. Donald Trump himself claimed that the EU had been created “to screw the United States”.

Meanwhile, private conversations disclosed from a reported cat, mistakenly shared with a journalist, reveal a level of animosity among the best American officials towards Europe who were expressed in suddenly direct terms.

Add to this repeated provocation of Trump on Greenland, targeted prices and, of course, its reversal of shocking politics on Ukraine, and the model of anti-European rhetoric becomes clear.

So why this sudden change?

The depth of hostility caught the Europeans surprised – even if they expected tensions with Trump’s return. Europe is barely largely large to keep Maga supporters awake at night. Most Europeans were impatient to stay under the aegis of American security and, as the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella said, was even ready to accept a kind of “happy vassalization” – as long as they were not missed, insulted or destabilized.

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