Thanks Donald, Europe will take it from here

One day Europeans may thank Mr Donald Trump for forcing them to do what they should have done long ago: reassert their own military and technological independence. For years, Europe’s strategic stance has been to hope for the best and prepare for the best. But the US President’s message could not have been blunter in Davos this week: Europe must now prepare for the worst. Mr Trump may have

backed off from military action against Greenland

and punitive tariffs against its European supporters, but his mocking antipathy towards Europe was overpowering. It is way beyond time for Europe to absorb that message, rip up eight decades of dependency and go it alone wherever it can.

As the transatlantic rift widens, Europe is slowly rebuilding its hard power to support Ukraine and counter a revanchist Russia. It must also wrestle with both the US and China, which have been weaponising tariffs, financial infrastructure and supply chains, as Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney warned. Global integration, for so long the watchword of European policymakers, risks subordination. European sovereignty must be made real.