Europe for Americans

Europeans have always seen themselves as the cradle of just about everything, and certainly of Western civilization. (Even though one of its most transcendent pillars, Jesus Christ, was Jewish and born in the part of the Middle East that was Judea and Samaria and today is Israel and the West Bank.)

They have always looked down on their American cousins, whom they consider to be a people with hardly any history, rednecks with no taste and arrogant people who only want to impose their ways on the whole world. The fact that Europe needed America's help, both militarily and economically, to rise from the ashes they had generated with World Wars I and II, is something that is often forgotten.

But at the recent summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on the peace agreement for Gaza, it was seen how hollow European arrogance is: the master of ceremony has put European leaders where they belong, marginal in a region to which they have contributed nothing positive and powerless in the face of an American president willing to use every instrument at his disposal to get what he wants. Previously, they were also left in an unideal position by the photo of the main European and E.U. politicians around the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

Despite wanting to appear in every photo centered around Donald Trump, the Europeans do not fully accept him. First, because he is American and that entails that he is neither as astute nor as sophisticated as members of the European elite. It is true that Biden was also American, but he was beloved as the European grandfather who had mistakenly ended up on the other side of the Atlantic.

Second, because Trump is not a Democrat, a party Europeans have always leaned toward, considering it the closest to the social democracy of the Old Continent. Republican presidents, who for example brought the end of the division of Europe, could not compete in image with an immoral Clinton and much less with a fake like Obama.

Third, because Trump is not politically correct and, even worse, is willing no longer to question but to fight a supposed moral superiority of the left; and fourth, because Trump is stark in the use of power and does not mind resorting to it to extract concessions from friends and adversaries. Moreover, he acts as a nationalist barbarian who clashes head-on with the prevailing ideology in Europe since the creation of the E.U. Namely, that states and national sovereignty are archaic institutions to be overcome through vertical integration and globalization.

"The ultimate dilemma of European decision-makers is that they do not want to admit that they are the problem plunging Europe into misery."

I am convinced that the current European leaders (with some insignificant exceptions) fear Trump more than Putin. The facts I am referring to are that it was not the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops that led NATO allies to accept to spend more on defense, but the fear that America, the backbone of security in Europe, would abandon them.

Yet, Europeans still do not want to accept reality and prefer to pretend that they can continue to live in a fantasyland. Largely because many have fallen into the temptation to believe that Trump is a passing fad and that after him, the waters will return to their course. Someone as weak and without any cards to play as far-left Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has dared to lead a supposed front "against Trump's ultra-right-wing" on the international stage. However, he has remained alone in that endeavor and tries now, shamelessly, to sneak in every chance he can get to go on TV with Trump.

At Sharm el-Sheikh, the Europeans have agreed to be bystanders, and they have been criticized for contributing nothing more than proposals that have jeopardized the peace talks, with the U.K. and France recognizing a Palestinian state that exists only in their heads. The problem is that their proposal has been made as part of a resistance against Trump, under cover of diplomatic inertia.

But not everything can be blamed on the left-wing mentality, moderate or radical, of the political elites in Europe. Politicians on the right have shaken their heads at the economic and trade practices of the American president. The case of tariffs is the best example. European conservatives have preferred to cling to an ideology, classical liberal in this case, and deny reality: Trump's recourse to tariffs has not caused the apocalypse in world trade. Quite the contrary, it has made it more balanced and fair. What is more, trade policy, properly employed, whether as carrot or stick, is a great instrument in the service of international politics and strategy. Arab countries have caught on quickly, and that is why they were all at the summit on the edge of the Red Sea. The E.U. has not assimilated and continues to talk about tariffs exclusively in the commercial field, acting and counter-acting only there, where it has everything to lose against America.

The real problem: European decline

The ultimate dilemma of the European leaders is that they do not want to admit that they are the problem that is plunging Europe into social, economic and military misery. Because to admit that means it is impossible to sustain the welfare state, the energy transition, rampant immigration and defense. It is to admit how wrong their policies have been for decades. And once that is clear, the options open to them are very limited: more public spending and more taxes, as E.U. over-regulation frustrates innovation and modernization of the continent's economic and industrial base.

Their problem is that when they look in the mirror, they see Donald Trump, an intolerable as well as depressing vision, knowing that things go relatively well for the American president and quite badly for them. And if you don't believe me, just ask Macron these days.

There is much talk that Western civilization is in decline. False. The European project from the European Union is what is really in crisis. America prospers while Europe stagnates; America wins while Europe prepares for defeat; Trump's America fights the cultural battle to reintroduce common sense and protect ordinary citizens, but in Europe, native Europeans are punished to embrace those who come from outside not to work but to take advantage of social benefits, if not to impose their laws and customs.

That is why, as much as they want to smile at Trump in the official photos, they revert to an icy, almost tragic expression (look at Starmer in Sharm el-Sheikh). Europeans will only come to tolerate him at best. Because he is stronger, richer and, above all, bolder. In Europe, our leaders have turned these virtues into sins.

Take advantage Americans, and stop by and see, there are still plenty of museums and cathedrals. But come before it is too late.