When the United States Goes Home - 2/17/25

The “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain has received a disproportionate amount of attention over the years, but U.S. ties with the European continent have often been just as important. And depending on whether you mark the beginning of that partnership as the founding of NATO in 1949 or the Franco-American Alliance in 1778, the case could be made that it has actually endured even longer. Until now. 

President Donald Trump, his vice president and his defense secretary delivered a triple blow to this age-old understanding last week, when they effectively severed the collaboration that had served this country and its European countries through two world wars, numerous economic, diplomatic and military flare-ups and countless other global challenges over our history as a nation. This coordination has been especially critical in the post-WWII period for the maintenance of a (mostly) stable world order, but almost exactly eighty years after Germany’s surrender, we are now entering a new period in which the dealings between the U.S. and our longtime allies will be impossible to predict.

Trump’s conduct was obviously the most visible, given both his extended conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the fate of Ukraine without including or informing Ukrainian or European leaders and his announcement of an array of reciprocal tariffs that could affect more than half a trillion dollars of Europe’s international trade. J.D. Vance’s words cut especially deep, as the vice president lambasted NATO’s defense ministers in unusually personal terms about what he characterized as their lack of commitment to democracy and free speech. 

But it was Pete Hegseth, Trump’s newly-confirmed defense secretary, who provided the most unsettling glimpse of the future of these intercontinental obligations. The headlines surrounding Hegseth’s first major speech were dominated by the comments he made about Ukraine, indicating that it would not be “realistic” for that country to expect either NATO membership or the restoration of their pre-war borders with Russia. Such was the outcry from both international and U.S. critics that Hegseth was forced to walk back his statement the following day, although the net effect was to raise serious doubts as to whether Trump would push for either goal.

But overshadowed by his remarks about Ukraine, and not nearly as immediately impactful as either Trump’s or Vance’s actions, Hegseth also referred to the future of the United States’ dedication to Europe’s protection was about to undergo an unsettling change. America’s Secretary of Defense suggested that a European force would be responsible for the oversight of the Ukraine-Russia border, but also specified that that military presence would be designated as part of “a non-NATO mission”, meaning that the U.S. would not participate in any such effort.

Since 1949, Article 5 of the original NATO mutually security guarantee has stated that every member of the alliance would be obligated to come to the aid of any member whose sovereignty or territory might be under attack. Hegseth was very clear that our own borders were now the U.S.’ highest military priority and that Europe’s needs would longer be given the same consideration.

“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland,” Hegseth said, presumably referring to immigrants entering the country without documentation. “We must — and we are — focusing on securing our own borders.”

Throughout the week, Hegseth and other Trump Administration issues also spoke of the need to focus on the rising threat from China. There is a legitimate geopolitical debate about how America should prioritize its international focus between Europe and Asia (every president since Barack Obama has referred to the need for an “Asia pivot” which has never actually taken place) That reckoning is necessary and long overdue.

But it’s not yet clear whether Trump, his advisors and his supporters are more interested in a shift to the Pacific Rim or simply reverting to the periodic isolationism in which our country has engaged since becoming a global power in the early 20th century. After every major military engagement and every significant economic downturn for more than 100 years, Americans have turned inward. But whenever we have left the rest of the world to its own devices, bad actors have filled that vacuum and caused a level of suffering and oppression that necessitated our return.

Alaska and Hawaii joined the union in 1959, meaning it has now been more than sixty years since the U.S. officially added to its numbers. This is by far the longer period in our country’s history without a territory achieving statehood. Trump may decide that it’s about time to pick up the pace.