Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, relations between Washington and European powers have sharply deteriorated.
Washington openly pressured Western European leaders to immediately increase defense spending. In July 2025, the US administration forced the European Union to agree to a significant increase in tariffs, commit to investing $750 billion in the US economy, and unconditionally purchase expensive US gas.
Washington Sets the Record Straight
The White House has effectively excluded EU countries from negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. However, Washington’s true attitude toward Europe became clear after Trump’s categorical statement that Greenland should belong to the US, not Denmark. Europeans have realized that Washington’s disdain is not just rhetoric but a reflection of actual American policy. The World Economic Forum in Davos, held from December 19 to 23, definitively confirmed this.
Trump arrived in Davos immediately after the invasion of Venezuela, which led to the overthrow of President Maduro, amid numerous campaigns against Greenland and the promotion of his own project for the future of the Gaza Strip.
Notably, the initiative unveiled in Davos to create a new international structure, the “Peace Council,” included only Hungary, a European state loyal to the Americans. The European continent was shocked by the encounter with an unfamiliar type of American leadership and actions that clearly went beyond what had long been considered Western political norms.
This situation was most clearly expressed by Canadian Prime Minister Michael Carney: “We are in the process of a rupture” the world order is crumbling. Belgian Prime Minister B. de Wever described these feelings even more figuratively: “Being a happy vassal is one thing, but being an unhappy slave is quite another.” European and American newspapers compared Trump to a “feudal lord.”
When eight European countries urgently sent several dozen troops to Greenland in solidarity with Denmark and in defiance of American policy, Trump announced that he would increase tariffs on these countries by 10%, and if their policies continued, by 25%. Germany and Norway immediately recalled their troops, and Trump relented, promising not to impose tariffs. Western European leaders breathed a sigh of relief when the American leader promised not to seize Greenland by force. However, they were unable to develop a common platform for confronting new challenges.
One Arab newspaper described Western Europe’s current policy as “an exercise in managing decline, not managing the future.” Governments are lurching from one crisis to another, constrained by an aging electorate, short electoral cycles, and institutions optimized for risk aversion rather than renewal. Politics is becoming increasingly reactive and procedural, with the emphasis on redistribution, regulation, and the maintenance of existing mechanisms rather than on capacity development or strategic transformation.
The West is Divided: Obvious Signs of a New World Order
January of this year marked a clear division within Western civilization. Transatlantic relations are in deep crisis, and NATO’s very existence is being called into question. This new state of international relations was most accurately reflected by the Saudi newspaper Sharq al-Awsat on January 25, 2026, which stated the emergence of a new world order defined by four key events:
Russia under Vladimir Putin: The Russian President has managed to halt the country’s disintegration and launch a counteroffensive against the West. With his characteristic pragmatism, he has exposed the fragility of Western “democracies” and the concept of a “unifying state of institutions” in both Europe and the United States.
China’s Return: China is reasserting its influential role, successfully distracting the world from its strategic ambitions, ostensibly focusing on economics, manufacturing, and scientific research.
Technological Revolution: The accelerating technological revolution, spanning fields from communications and information to artificial intelligence, promises to fundamentally change the landscape across many sectors and around the world.
Rethinking Priorities in the US: The populist nationalist MAGA movement, led by Donald Trump and theorists like Steve Bannon, is changing thinking and priorities in the United States. Traditional values are no longer the enemy, and traditional allies are no longer allies. Diplomatic language is giving way to the language of coercion or threats, and long-term forecasts are being replaced by quick, short-term deals.
In 1784, Immanuel Kant wrote, “Conjectural history differs from natural history in this: the course of human events depends on freedom, not on necessity. The only prophecy that can come true is the one that the prophet helps to bring about.” Marx argued that Kant was wrong.
Perhaps Trump will prove Kant right.
Mohammed Amer, Syrian publicist
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