Alexis Papachelas
"Thank you, Donald." All Europeans should be saying that out loud. What is the U.S. president really telling us in his own barbaric, rude, and incoherent way? Exactly what Mario Draghi wrote in his report — a report that sent shockwaves through Europe's elite before it was conveniently shelved.
Trump is telling us, first and foremost, that Europe is the spoiled child of post-war history. It flourished under the protective umbrella of U.S. security, with America bearing the lion's share of common defense costs. The truth is, the Old Continent cannot carry out any serious military mission without U.S. support. Its defense industry is fragmented and underwhelming.
Europe, having largely abandoned industrial production years ago, now lags dramatically behind the U.S. in technology and start-ups. Without a unified capital market, any European with a promising business idea must cross the Atlantic to secure funding. Meanwhile, Europe has prided itself on over-regulating sectors like data protection, often neglecting the need to compete with the U.S. and China in critical fields like artificial intelligence. Add to that its reckless dependence on Russian energy, without considering the consequences.
Now Trump has arrived to jolt us from our European slumber of a "carefree, good, and civilized life."
Along with his vice president, he insults Europe at every turn. In Trump's worldview, only power matters — nothing else. He sees Europe as weak, spineless, and ripe for manipulation. His intentions have never been hidden. Since 2016, he has made them crystal clear, while Europe kept talking and talking and talking.
Today, European leaders have no more excuses. The time for decisions has come. The EU and the Commission were built for peaceful times, not for an era of geopolitical upheaval. What is needed now are swift decisions, without vetoes and without bureaucracies clinging to their turf.
Trump is shaking us awake — but in doing so, he's also dismantling the post-war order that America so cleverly and wisely built. He is forcing everyone to abandon the old tools and rethink the world from scratch. Every day, we wake up to the terrifying realization that another certainty we've held since 1945 has died. Who is friend and who is foe? Even the prospect of Europe forming a single market with Canada is now on the table.
We needed this rude, brutal awakening — even if it leads to a wild, brutal strategic divorce.
