President Trump remains deeply unpopular across the majority of Europe’s political class, cultural elite, and media ecosystem. Increasingly, however, Europeans now seem to be agreeing with him. On topics such as defence, energy, trade, borders, and national sovereignty, Trump’s hard truths have been long since avoided by European leaders and dismissed as crude or dangerous. Now, those same leaders appear to be scrambling to implement policies that look strikingly similar.
Trump’s approach to Europe was never about consensus or charm, but rather about leverage and forcing a complacent continent to confront strategic realities. What once looked like disruptive speech now increasingly resembles tough love.
Europe’s Elite Don’t Like Being Exposed by Trump
Trump’s direct style collided head-on with Europe’s self-image. He spoke plainly and treated alliances as transactional rather than unconditional or sacred. Europe’s governing class, steeped in postwar technocracy and consensus politics, couldn’t forgive it.
But it’s clear that popularity was never Trump’s goal. He didn’t seem interested in winning editorial praise or dinner party confidence. Instead, he applied pressure where Europe was weakest: defence dependence, uncontrolled migration, economic complacency, and energy naivety.
European leaders often took Trump’s blunt approach for ignorance when really, he was simply exposing their own reluctance to confront voters with uncomfortable trade-offs. In short: Trump said out loud what many European policymakers privately acknowledged but rarely revealed to the public.
NATO & Defence: The Reckoning Europe Delayed
Demanding that European NATO members meet their defence spending commitments was once Trump’s most controversial stance – it’s now one of the least disputed. He warned that America would no longer indefinitely subsidise Europe’s security, and was originally accused of undermining NATO itself.
For decades, most European states failed to meet the 2% GDP defence target they had already agreed to. Trump didn’t invent the obligation or broker the original deal – he just wanted to ensure it was enforced.
The Russia-Ukraine war validated his argument. Europe suddenly rediscovered its own need for tanks, industrial capacity, and ammunition – things Trump had long since highlighted for the continent before conflict escalated. Germany’s Zeitenwende defence pivot, for example, is a delayed acceptance of the facts.
Trump’s Energy Warnings Were Ignored
Energy was a topic on which Trump was derided, too. He warned that Germany was making itself vulnerable strategically by continuing to depend on Russian gas – claims that were mocked as crude American posturing.
Then Europe’s largest economy suddenly found itself exposed to what it considered a hostile power, scrambling for alternatives when the geopolitical bill came due. Trump’s insistence on energy independence – originally criticised as nationalist bluster – now underpins Europe’s frantic push for supply diversification. Sovereignty without energy security, Trump knew, was an illusion. Europe waited to learn it the hard way.
Migration, Borders & the Limits of Liberal Idealism
Trump’s position on immigration was treated as moral heresy in Europe. Enforcement, walls, national borders – all were framed as uniquely American, unnecessary obsessions, incompatible with European ideology.
The illusion has since collapsed. From Italy to France and Germany to Sweden, migration has totally reshaped politics. Voter backlash has been experienced across the continent, social cohesion is truly strained, and policies once considered “far-right” talking points are now being debated in mainstream parliaments.
Today, Europe is no longer denying the existence its border problems. Tougher stances are being adopted, while they insist that they arrived at new potential solutions independent of US advice.
Trade & Strategy
Trump’s ongoing “trade wars” and distrust of global supply chains horrified many European economists, who insisted free trade was not only an unquestionable good, but totally detached from national resilience or strategic autonomy. Today, however, Europe openly talks about reshoring production and reducing dependence on hostile or unstable partners. The vocabulary, then, has changed, but the logic is exactly what Trump first pushed for.
Why Trump’s “Tough Love” Toward Europe is Working
Supporters of Trump will agree that Europe was not an equal partner pulling its weight, instead acting as a protected zone coasting under American security guarantees while lecturing Washington on morality. His approach needed to be abrasive, because it’s clear that decades of subtlety and polite diplomacy had led nowhere. Pressure produces action, not just promises. As a result, defence budgets have risen, energy policies have changed, and strategic debates have reopened.
This doesn’t mean Trump’s personal popularity has improved. But political agreement doesn’t require affection – increasingly, European voters are able to distinguish between the man and the message. Separating the tone from the substance, many are learning:
- Alliances must be reciprocal
- Borders are critically important
- Energy dependence is dangerous
- Security cannot be outsourced forever
Europe may not acknowledge Trump’s influence, but its policies increasingly reflect his worldview.
Final Thought
Europe seems to be learning that strategic realities do not disappear simply because they are deemed impolite to discuss. Defence spending, energy independence, border control and national sovereignty were neglected fundamentals, not new concepts created by Trump, and are finally being acted upon. It’s unlikely the relationship between Trump and Europe will be remembered for diplomatic warmth or rhetorical finesse, but the apparent influence is hard to ignore.
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Categories: World News
Trump brought REALITY back to the European union and the UK.
Now it’s time for them to face that reality since they’re both with their back against the wall of all the lies they have been telling the last half century.
They’re no way back.
REALITY always wins in the end.
After the Civil War, when Starmer and co and all the traitors are eliminated…we should look to Trump to run this country. That would trigger the left, but perhaps they can just bugger off to the EUSSR…until we take that over too….