BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 \u201cIntimidation,» \u201cthreats\u201d and \u201cblackmail\u201d are just some of the terms being used by European Union leaders to describe U.S.<\/b>
\n\u201cIntimidation,\u201d \u201cthreats\u201d and \u201cblackmail\u201d are just some of the terms being used by European Union leaders to describe U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s warning that he will slap new tariffs on nations opposing American control of Greenland.
European language has hardened since Trump returned to the White House 12 months ago. Now it\u2019s in reaction to the previously unthinkable idea that NATO\u2019s most powerful member would threaten to seize the territory of another ally. Trade retaliation is likely should Trump make good on his tariff announcement.
A year into Trump 2.0, Europe\u2019s faith in the strength of the transatlantic bond is fading fast. For some, it\u2019s already disappeared. The flattery of past months has not worked and tactics are evolving as the Europeans try to manage threats from an old ally just as they confront the threat of an increasingly hostile Russia.
Trump\u2019s first term brought NATO to the brink of collapse. \u201cI feared that NATO was about to stop functioning,\u201d former Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote in his recent memoir, after the U.S. president had threatened to walk out of a 2018 summit.
Now, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is warning that should he try to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous part of Denmark, \u201cthen everything stops \u2026 including our NATO.\u201d
\u201cWe are at the very early stage of a rather deep political-military crisis,\u201d said Maria Martisiute, a European Policy Centre analyst. \u201cThere is a greater realization, even though political leaders will not like to admit it, that America has abandoned NATO.\u201d
In January 2025, U.S. allies at NATO were waiting to hear Trump\u2019s plans for Ukraine.
Europe\u2019s biggest land war in decades was about to enter its fourth year. The Europeans believed that President Vladimir Putin would pose an existential threat to their territory should Russia win.
Few thought that Biden administration policies would continue. But within weeks, any lingering hopes for the U.S. commitment to Ukraine dissolved. American arms supplies and funds began to dry up. Europe would have to fill the gap and pay for U.S. help.
In a speech at NATO headquarters in February, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth read the riot act to European allies and Canada. The United States had priorities elsewhere and Europe must handle security in its own backyard.
Ukraine would not join the alliance. Its territory seized by Russia would not be returned. The Europeans could pull together a force to help Ukraine if they wanted, but they wouldn\u2019t get U.S. help if they went into the country and got attacked.
Trump has since blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the invasion.
Days later that February, in Munich, Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a far-right party during election campaigning in Germany. He claimed that Europe\u2019s main threat was internal, not Russia. Free speech is \u201cin retreat\u201d across the continent, Vance warned.
But after winning the poll, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said that \u201cin view of the increasing threat situation,\u201d Germany and Europe \u201cmust now very quickly make very big efforts, very quickly,\u201d to strengthen their defense capabilities.
Over the course of last year, European leaders and Zelenskyy flew to Washington to try to keep Trump onside. A 28-point plan to end the war that he floated would acquiesce to many Russian demands.
The plan was reworked. Talks continue, but without Putin. Few expect him to accept. Trump mostly blames Zelenskyy for the stalemate.
Meanwhile, Europe pressed ahead with new defense measures, even as Trump waged a global tariff war, including against U.S. allies, roiling their economies.
The EU created a multibillion-euro fund to buy arms and ammunition, with the emphasis on sourcing them from European companies and weaning nations off U.S. suppliers.
Debt rules were eased for security spending. Money was funneled into Ukraine\u2019s defense industry. In December, European leaders agreed to pay for most of its military and economic needs for the next two years as Kyiv teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.
A new U.S. national security strategy further soured transatlantic relations. It paints European allies as weak, offers tacit support to far-right political parties, and criticizes European free speech and migration policy.
European Council President Antonio Costa warned the U.S. against interfering in Europe\u2019s affairs. Merz said that the U.S. strategy underscores the need for Europe to become \u201cmuch more independent\u201d from the United States.
Work has since begun on Europe\u2019s own security strategy. It aims to respond to \u201cthe geopolitical changes in our world and to give an appropriate answer to that,\u201d European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Part of it is to make Europe even more autonomous.
As France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands sent troops to Greenland last week \u2014 small in number but highly symbolic in the message of resolve sent to the White House \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron said that it\u2019s important \u201cto stand at the side of a sovereign state to protect its territory.\u201d
\u201cEurope is being shaken from some of its certainties,\u201d he told French military chiefs. \u201cIt sometimes has allies that we thought were predictable, fearless, always by our side, who are now causing us to doubt a lot, or are even turning against those who expected it the least.\u201d
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