Trump is set to travel to Turkey to attend this week’s NATO summit, having previously transformed the transatlantic alliance—built on shared democratic values—into a framework more familiar to him: a business deal. At this week’s meeting, Trump will once again focus on how much European nations are willing to spend on American military equipment. This shift reflects the current U.S. administration’s growing tendency toward transactional approaches with some of its closest allies, with the risk of overshadowing discussions about expanding membership or defending NATO’s eastern flank against Russia. At the same time, it undermines the very bonds that once held the alliance together—transforming it from one shaped by shared ideals into one increasingly driven by national interests. Upon arriving in Ankara, Trump also holds significant leverage over NATO: the United States possesses the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence technologies, and can decide which allies gain access to them—a reality that has left some European partners deeply uneasy.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, America’s European allies have undergone a historic shift—from attempts to flatter Trump to a growing movement toward “de-Americanization.” In early 2025, Trump’s renewed threat to seize Greenland prompted European leaders to hastily convene emergency meetings. Macron was among the first to call for “drawing a line,” arguing that Europe’s overreliance on the U.S. now poses a security risk. Over the following year, despite NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s “flattery diplomacy”—public praise and elevated defense spending targets aimed at appeasing Trump, and a temporary facade of unity maintained at the Hague summit in June 2025—Trump’s vacillating stance toward Ukraine after his August 2025 meeting with Putin in Alaska made clear to European leaders that the strategy of flattery had diminishing returns. Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau actively lobbied European leaders to accept the reality that “the old America will not return,” pushing nations to accelerate their de-Americanization efforts: removing American technologies, developing indigenous space and AI industries, and assessing how long U.S.-made weapons systems could remain operational without continued support and authorization from the U.S. government. Britain’s MI6 likened Trump’s White House to a mix of the paranoid atmosphere in *The Crucible* and the scheming intrigues of the Tudor court depicted in *Wolf Hall*. The fundamental dilemma facing America’s allies is whether Trump’s anti-European posture is a personal trait or a new American norm. Should Europe continue purchasing American technologies and weapons to preserve the alliance—or prepare for Western disintegration by going it alone? This transatlantic transformation, beginning with flattery and ending in awakening, marks an unprecedented fracture in the Western alliance, historically united by shared fate since World War II.
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Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869956670059531/
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