Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain a day after saying he was looking at reducing the number deployed in Germany.
The US president’s threat to Germany came after the country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said America was being “humiliated” by Iran.
Trump has severely criticised Nato allies for not sending their navies to help to open the strait of Hormuz, a crucial commercial shipping corridor.
Some ideas refuse to die. One of these is the notion of a European “reversal of alliances” into the arms of Russia. The phrase refers to the unexpected decoupling from former allies, accompanied by an unexpected alliance with former enemies. In 1756, Austria, which had always been an ally of Great Britain, instead allied with its longtime foe, France. Meanwhile, Great Britain and its old enemy, Prussia, became allies — resulting in the Seven Years’ War.
You hear it in Europe from the “new right” and the far left — at conferences where people swoon over “multipolarity” and in the corridors of Germany’s Bundestag, where desperate industrialists plead for Russia’s Gazprom to reopen its taps.
If this reversal of alliances was possible in 1756, why not in 2026?
I’m sure Carney has bought in.
As an American living in Europe, I am frequently asked if my compatriots understand the extent of the damage being done to all facets of transatlantic relations by the Trump administration’s bullying policies. My answer is, sadly, no.
More and more Europeans no longer view the United States as a reliable ally. The reasons are not hard to find. The president has threatened to leave NATO, sidelined allies in negotiations over Ukraine’s future, imposed steep tariffs on the European Union and threatened to seize Greenland by force — prompting Europeans to prepare for the real prospect of military conflict with their oldest ally. One recent survey found that one-quarter or more of respondents in some countries — including France, Germany and Spain — see the United States as a rival or adversary. Another found that an absolute majority view Trump as an “enemy” of Europe and U.S. foreign policy as “recolonization.” Polls also reflect a growing belief that China is a more dependable partner.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has accused Eurocrats in Brussels of meddling against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a bid to topple the MAGA ally in Budapest at this week’s parliamentary elections.
In a press conference from the Hungarian capital just days before voters will head to the polls to select the next parliament, and therefore the next prime minister, Vice President Vance said that he was not there to tell citizens who to vote for, but merely to show support for Prime Minister Orbán, whom he described as the “rare exception” among leaders in Europe willing to stand up in defence of Western and Christian civilization.
The overdue end of NATO is finally coming fast.
The American president and secretary of state have signaled that the defense umbrella provided to Europe under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty is no longer a priority for the U.S. government.
This cannot have been a surprise in European capitals, but apparently it nonetheless is being treated as a shock.
Shipping and military expert John Konrad spent all day in D.C. on Tuesday talking to his military sources and concluded that “the Navy appears to be in no rush to reopen the strait,” even while Iran dictates whose oil tankers are allowed to pass.
“What is this administration trying to leverage?” Konrad wondered, and that nobody he talked to was willing to discuss the fate of Hormuz “until European politicians and media stop calling Americans war criminals and monsters.”
Let’s unpack this..
What if the White House has no intention of reopening the Strait of Hormuz?
What if this war is really about ships & tariffs?
I had a long discussion with senior DOE official yesterday on background. I can’t share any details but it’s clear everyone’s… https://t.co/DCP0uw7C4E
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) March 18, 2026
Europe knew this may be coming. For weeks, leaders and policy makers watched the US military build-up in the Middle East. They heard the threats of the Trump administration to Tehran: Give up all nuclear aspirations – or else!
But since the US-Israeli attack started on Iran three days ago, this continent has looked at best uncoordinated, if not fractured and decidedly without leverage, caught up in the maelstrom of events.
Each European country is understandably angsting about its citizens in the region – whether and how they may need to evacuate what would be tens of thousands of people in total.
They fear the Muslims they have allowed to settle.
Donald Trump has declared that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”, as the UK and the EU said they were seeking urgent clarity on the US trade deals they struck last summer.
Trump threatened to escalate his global tariff war on Monday, after a supreme court ruling last week that he had overstepped his legal authority to impose his “liberation day” measures last year.
Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said he did not expect Trump’s new 15% global tariff – announced on Saturday – to affect the majority of a UK-US economic deal that was agreed last year.
Marco Rubio’s warning against civilizational suicide.
If you live long enough, you can trace the river of history apart from the smaller tributaries and streams. You’ve watched it rise or fall according to the acts of men. You’ve seen great leaders bend it where it wasn’t going, and bad leaders redirect it into the shoals. And you can tell what will lead to greatness and what will end in disaster. Which is how I know Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference was not only the finest of this century, but the most potentially consequential.
Europeans push back at US over claim they face ‘civilizational erasure’
MUNICH (AP) — A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies. He struck a less aggressive tone than Vice President JD Vance did in lecturing them at the same gathering last year but maintained a firm tone on Washington’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its policy priorities.
Rubio’s full remarks at Munich Security Conference
Ok, let’s take a break from Star Wars for a bit and dive into something lighter, like the Islamification of Europe. A little trip into the near future, no IP violations this time… unless you count Keir Starmer’s face as a human being, God have mercy on your soul.
Made with Grok… pic.twitter.com/mtMPg11oYR
— Sith Daddy Vlogs (@sithdaddyvlogs) February 15, 2026
Pic – The Chapel of the Martyrs of the Cathedral of Otranto
Governing elites in Europe, in what increasingly appears to be the EUSSR (European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) race to the bottom, have been growing ever more unpopular. Disapproval ratings are skyrocketing. In France, 77% of the public disapprove of President Emmanuel Macron. In Britain, 68% disapprove of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In Germany, 64% disapprove of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and in Spain, 61% have had it up to here with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Without American sacrifice, would there be a free Europe?
When European leaders took the stage at the World Economic Forum this year, the language was familiar: partnership, shared values, transatlantic unity. What was conspicuously absent was memory. Not nostalgia, not sentiment—but memory. Because when it comes to America’s role in Europe’s survival, prosperity, and security, much of today’s European political class behaves as if history began yesterday.
The European Union wants to prosecute more people for online “hate speech.”
This week, the European Commission issued a direct challenge to the Trump administration by releasing a sprawling “Anti-Racism Strategy” for 2026–2030. The document heavily prioritizes expanding the policing of “hate speech,” especially online, framing the effort as “Stepping Up Protection Against Racial Hatred.”
Last year, Vice President JD Vance delivered an address to the Munich Security Conference in which he warned, “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
European politicians had little rest this weekend after Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he would be imposing punitive tariffs on the eight countries that had sent troops to Greenland last week. From 1 February, 10 per cent tariffs will be slapped on goods entering the United States from Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. They had, Trump said, ‘journeyed to Greenland for purposes unknown’ and he accused them of playing a ‘very dangerous game’.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday, January 5th, that Hungary would not need to follow the United Kingdom’s path out of the European Union because the bloc is “falling apart by itself.”
Speaking at an international press conference in Budapest, the conservative leader argued that a “process of de-integration” is already under way within the EU, driven by the growing incompetence of EU leaders.
He said Brussels repeatedly adopts major policy decisions only to abandon or dilute them later, pointing to unrealistic deadlines for the green transition and the weakening of the Schengen system—the system of open internal borders within the EU—as clear signs of systemic failure.
