While American allies might detest what Trump stands for, they’d be wise to listen to him. One quality of this president is that he raises burning questions that many more timid or politically correct politicians don’t dare touch — whatever one might think of his proposed solutions.
No modern presidential candidate until Trump built a campaign around the dispossession of working Americans whose jobs and industries disappeared abroad because of free trade policies adopted by their government.
Trump’s immigration policies are often draconian and racist. But he raised the issue of mass migration that is straining Western societies when other, often liberal politicians didn’t. Now, every government in Europe is wrestling with the problem, fueling a wave of Trump-style populists.
One critical geopolitical question Trump asked is about the transatlantic alliance. Europe’s failure, 80 years after World War II, to equip itself for its own defense gave him the opening. Previous US presidents and European leaders would often meet and lionize the World War II generation without planning for the inevitable consequences once the heroes and living memory of their deeds faded away.
Trump could turn out to be a blip, and a future president of either party might revive internationalism. But he was elected twice, suggesting that political conditions inside the US have shifted in a lasting way. And a Democratic Party that seems to share many of Trump’s populist economic instincts might also balk at financing Europe’s defense.
A shift away from the United States has clearly begun. Europe must be ready for the old world not to come back.