America first means doubling down on Europe | The Economist

If Europe is not an ally of the United States,  then then China rules the world. And having an. ally means treating it like an ally in contrast  to the way we're currently treating it. Okay. I. would Europe needs to be an ally. Now, you've  got a whole crop of silly leaders and a lot of. bad post-war attitudes, but fundamentally Europe  is our ally. Allied on the deepest the deepest. possible levels, and no one in the United States  wants to admit that. So if if Europeans feel. threatened by an aggressive expansionist Russia,  you would take that into account as an ally. Of.

course, and we did take it into account, but at  this stage America for taking this into account. Look, America needs to create a hierarchy of  concerns and the first concern has to be its. own citizens. Of course, every sovereign state has  to have that hierarchy. I am calling in my heart, I never say this but I think this a lot for a  re reorientation of the way we in the US think. about the rest of the world where Europe from  which we came basically Europe produced us.

You think America first means doubling down  on Europe as an ally? Of course threatening. to take Greenland part of that. I don't really  understand that. I mean, I personally felt that. that was counterproductive to our uh our goals,  our natural goals. I think there are people in the. US government who really really hate Europe and  I don't really understand why. What do you think. those deep reasons? I don't know, but it's real.  It's like the hatred of Europe. Like I get it's,

you know, Macron's a buffoon, Merz is a buffoon,  Starmer's totally a buffoon. Many buffoons. We. have buffoons, too. I get it. But like blowing up  Nordstream, getting into a conflict with Iran when. you know it's going to shut off LNG to Britain  and Europe. Why would you want that? First of all, Europe is the global centre of beauty, which is  really meaningful to me. Second, the world is. cleaving along hemispheres. Duh. We didn't choose  that. It's just happening. So why would you want.

to accelerate the death of the people you have  the most in common with who were part of your. coalition in the end? But what we're doing is by  basically creating the circumstances that created. this war in Ukraine, which we did, sorry.  And then withdrawing and saying it's on you, Europe. And then standing back as European leaders  to deflect attention from their own failures, jin up the threat of Russia. But of course,  Europe can't defend itself because they've.

relied on our security guarantees and allowed  American troops on their soil for 80 years. We. are putting them into a position where they have  no choice but to look for other alliances. And. I don't know why. It's just inevitable. I don't  know what those will be. I mean, I I assume China, but I don't know. But they're going to have  to look elsewhere. Why would we want that?