a โsymptomโ of a larger erosion of trust between the United States and Europe.
Erosion?That's no erosion, which would be a slow natural process.
What happened is that Trump, in his usual delicate manner, put a bullet in the head of the US alliance with the EU.
And then, even it's not been officially acted yet, they also put a bullet in the head of NATO too. One just need to listen to mr Vance first Munich speech as vice-president. Sure, unlike his boss, mr Vance is not an illiterate pig, quite the contrary he is one of the smartest and brightest politician I can think of, but the message was still crystal clear: we the EU are on our own.
And then, seeing how Trump is willing to use 'his' economical power and 'his' armed forces to play bully against any country he disagrees with or that doesn't play along the US rules or doesn't pay the USA enough for his 'protection' (like some shitty gangster racketing local shop owners, in an Hollywood movie), I have little doubt what the USA would be willing to do to the EU (and to its too many rules and regulations) if they were given the opportunity. POTUS himself explained to the world we Europeans only exist to "screw America".
If that doesn't say it all about the state of any alliance between us I don't know what will.
And that's not just Trump being Trump. I mean, US people elected this clown twice meaning that's the kind of leadership they want to follow. Why keep on pretending the dude is merely an accident and that thing will get back to 'normal' after him? Normality is Trump-like. When mr Vance will become the next President he will obviously be (a lot) less illiterate and (a lot) less dumb than Trump is, but he certainly will not make us an ally again. They don't give a crap, that's their policy.
It's rarely a good idea to elect an hateful angry monkey as a leader, we can all agree on that but can we also all agree that the issue is never the monkey itself but the people deciding to put it in charge. And those people,they don't seem to me that much willing to change for the better, I'm afraid. Hate and violence seem to be the only plate on their menu, it's just the color of the name on the menu that's different.
The USA has made quite a few dumb decisions since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Decisions that mostly managed to strengthen their true enemies and rivals while weakening their rare real allies. This is just one more decision like that, but a huge one.