I’ve always thought that anti-Americanism was a childish European habit. Sure, it was tempting to indulge in Yank-bashing when George W. Bush was their dimwitted president and fires were blazing from Kabul to Baghdad. But Britons at least had to remember that we were complicit in the War on Terror ourselves, with Tony Blair hitching our horse-drawn carriage to America’s adventurism.
Britons and our allies in Western Europe were dependent on American might when it came to defence. We could sneer about the cowboy in the White House but it was American wealth, not “European values”, that was keeping NATO alive. As easy as it was to wring our hands about America’s healthcare system, meanwhile, European hospitals depended on the US for everything from drug research to blood plasma. Elsewhere, Europeans would turn their noses up at American cultural bombast as if the country of David Lynch, Cormac McCarthy and The Sopranos was our artistic inferior.
There was a lot to dislike about Donald Trump, during his first administration, but he had a real knack for exposing European complacency. The footage of German diplomats giggling as he warned against relying on Russian gas is rightly infamous. The laughter that broke out over his sloppy comments about immigration and crime in Sweden died as Stockholm became Europe’s gun crime capital.
All this is to say that I am not anti-American and I am certainly no fan of Europe’s cosmopolitan managerialists. If the Americans want to step back from their involvement in Europe then, well, it is their perfect right to do so.
Still, Americans — can you be a bit less cocky?
An edge — perhaps a vengeful edge — of smugness has crept into American political discourse when it comes to addressing Europe. It began with JD Vance telling President Zelensky that he should be more thankful to the US. Zelensky had thanked Americans dozens of times, making this a rather disingenuous power move. As it happens, I suspect that Vice President Vance is right that the Ukrainians cannot win the war, but it seemed like an obnoxious way of flexing on Zelensky.
Now, a power-drunk Elon Musk — who seems increasingly desperate for worldwide respect as a means of compensating for his awkward charmlessness — is telling Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, “be quiet, small man” for suggesting that Poland might seek an alternative to Musk’s Starlink terminals, which have been replacing Ukraine’s internet and communications networks. No one should ignore Musk’s contribution to Ukraine’s defence, and no one has to tell me that Sikorski is hardly a model of diplomatic restraint himself, but wind your neck in man, my God.
Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, who Trump once dubbed “Little Marco” and who validates the insult with his sycophantic treatment of his one-time bully, piped up to say that Mr Sikorski should be thanking Musk. Again with the shrill demand for gratitude. Where does this need to be thanked come from? It doesn’t look like power (which might come with a certain amount of noblesse oblige). It reeks of insecurity.
Again, it is true that the US state and US businesses have done a lot to keep Europe safe. But it has not been an act of simple charity. The US does not keep troops in Europe out of the goodness of its own national heart — it does it for the sake of keeping its rivals in check.
It also does it to protect its allies. Dozens of Polish soldiers, for example, died in support of the US’s miserable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The CIA established a black site in Poland. Poland is among the primary customers of the US arms industry.
To use fine American terms that a diplomat must abstain from, get bent
Poland has been such a good friend to the US, indeed, that Trump’s new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has called it a “model ally” in response to its investment in defence (Poland now has Europe’s highest relative defence spending, which is creeping up to 5 per cent of its GDP). In response, Musk insults one of its ministers and Rubio demands a period of bootlicking.
To use fine American terms that a diplomat must abstain from, get bent.
Of course, Europeans should appreciate our partnerships with our American friends. I don’t think we should be getting into a genital-waving contest with our civilisational cousins. But that does not make it right for the MAGA crowd to expect the world to supplicate before their greatness. To the extent that it is possible at all, it is to the shame of Eurocrats who have been engaged in foolish multicultural and regulatory projects when they should have been securing European wealth and strength.
No more. We should be allies who can all command respect — not followers being taunted by our so-called friend’s weird brother.
