Trans-Atlantic ties between the U.S. and Europe are deteriorating rapidly, with tensions over the Iran war adding to a growing sense that the world’s most important geopolitical partnership is sliding toward a divorce.
President Trump has expressed “disgust” with European allies for not joining the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, and has mused with aides and journalists about pulling out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the 77-year-old alliance that won the Cold War and, until recently, underpinned the West.
For their part, European leaders have come out staunchly against a war they weren’t consulted on, and which they see as both illegal and ill-advised. After a year in which Trump placed tariffs on European products, scrapped most U.S. support for Ukraine, repeatedly mocked European leaders and threatened to seize the Danish territory of Greenland, they and their voters are in no mood to help out.
