The era of European dependence is over

Ever since World War II, Europe has been reliant on the United States for everything from its defense to its healthcare. President Donald Trump is now signaling that this era of dependence is over.

Technically, Trump has been telegraphing this since his very first presidential campaign, when he declared that other countries need to stop ripping off the U.S. He singled out Europeans in particular for free-riding off of American security guarantees through NATO.

But Trump has often had bigger fish to fry, and while he’s put plenty of verbal pressure on Europe to stand on its own two feet, the intervening Ukraine war has only deepened European dependence. The U.S. has given nearly five times as much bilateral aid to Ukraine as Germany, the leading European contributor, even though the U.S. is an ocean and a continent away.

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