Columnist Henry Olsen has written an appraisal of where US relations with the EU and Europe more broadly stand today. "Tough love from the US" would be a fair summary. He writes the following for the Brussels Signal:
Europe now knows where it stands. If it wants a relationship with America, it must have a relationship with all of America, not just the half that it prefers to invite to cocktail parties.
If it wants a seat at the table to form a united front with the United States even in its backyard, it needs to develop the hard military power that commands respect.
If it wants respect from Washington, it must show respect to Alabama, Kansas, and the places in flyover country that elect Republicans. And it must also show respect to their own citizens, often from their own rural and forgotten communities, who feel and vote the same way.
European elites may decide they don’t want a relationship on those terms. That’s certainly one option, and an understandable, if regrettable, one.
But then that’s their choice, not Trump’s. And they will then need to sleep in the bed they have made.
And alas, there is a fair chance they'll find themselves sharing that bed with a rapacious Russian while we get ready to face down China. Hat tip to Ed Driscoll, posting at Instapundit, for the link.
