There are already numerous signs that President Donald Trump has made America increasingly hated throughout the world, from the sour reception he received at the World Cup and military experts slamming his prosecution of the Iran War to reports that other countries no longer take him or his threats seriously. Yet according to a new commentary by an Army veteran, Trump has made it very difficult for America’s own allies to trust the United States.
“The world’s liberal democracies had grown comfortable and complacent, like the eponymous character at the beginning of Rocky III, while the tyrannical, authoritarian, and malign regimes (the Clubber Langs of the world, if you will) grew stronger and more prepared,” wrote Mike Nelson, a retired Army Special Forces officer and a member of the Atlantic Council’s Counterterrorism Project, for the conservative publication The Dispatch. Nelson, who previously in the article described how there had been ample signs America would demand more European investment in NATO, argued that Trump’s actions toward the alliance go far beyond merely demanding more financial contributions.
“President Trump has continued to suggest that the United States—the most powerful of NATO’s member nations—might not support its fellow members if they were attacked,” Nelson opined. “Trump has even suggested that the United States might be the country doing the attacking. The Danes took his threats against Greenland so seriously that they deployed their special operations forces to the territory in preparation for an American offensive.”
He continued that “the message is clear, through both the Trump administration’s words and actions: Europe should not count on the United States. The nation that had once been the stalwart ally might, in the near future, be a neutral observer at best or an adversary at worst. Even if the Trump administration does not progress further down this path, the idea that America may be fickle about commitments in which we had previously been resolute is not a concern that can be ignored. Europe now has to consider the possibility that the indispensable nation may choose to be dispensable in the future of European security. “
Even though Trump has urged Europe to do precisely that, Nelson referred to a recent comment by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby indicating that Trump actually wants it both ways — a Europe that relies primarily on America for its weapons systems while still being vulnerable to America withdrawing its support at any time.
“It is realistic and rhetorically clear that if the United States keeps banging on the table demanding that Europe become less dependent on us, the result would be for it to become more independent from us,” Nelson wrote. “The result of the Trump administration pushing Europe to the side is Europeans adapting to that reality. Yet Colby seemed perturbed at the effect for which his policy was the cause when he posted a condemnation of Europe’s plans on X last week, saying that a ‘middle powers’ strategy’—the idea that second-tier powers would align independently and in prevention of aggression by the great powers—is not ‘a serious possibility.’”
Nelson added, “In a demonstration of the underlying problem, Colby condemns Europeans who consider procuring weapons elsewhere, but then reminds them that ‘access to the American DIB (defense industrial base) is a privilege, not a right.’ How dare you consider looking elsewhere for weapons, but also remember we might cut off your access to them, fail to fulfill already paid-for orders, deny software integration that makes the weapons usable, or deny you access to repair parts. Gee, who would want to build a hedge against that unreliable supply chain?”
He compared this to America demanding Europe’s help with our Iran war after our nation repeatedly insulted their countries.
“Without a strengthened transatlantic alliance, the world will become less advantageous for liberal democracies and more favorable for those rising powers looking to fill the empty space created by the gaps in the alliance,” Nelson argued. “There are some who convince themselves America has no business maintaining interest in, or benefiting from the liberal world order and instead recommend a withdrawal to behind the walls of an American-dominated fortress of the Western Hemisphere.”
He concluded, “But history demonstrates that the storms that gather around the world eventually spread to those who seek refuge in isolationism.”