According to the president-elect’s critics, dark days lie ahead with Donald Trump on the world stage once more. I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, Trump 2.0 may just be the catalyst needed to jolt not just America, but the UK and Europe out of their disaster trajectories.
Trump’s election was an utter rejection by the public of misguided elite perceptions in America. While the swamp, Hollywood and The New York Times wring their hands and blame racism and misogyny for his landmark electoral victory, they appear oblivious to a real crisis unfolding in the West. Plagued by mass migration, economic decay, political turmoil, and an existential crisis of identity, Europe is a civilisation in freefall. Trump’s ambitious vision – with its focus on strength, sovereignty, and economic dynamism – may well be the West’s last best hope.
Compare America now to Britain, where Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government exemplifies everything wrong with European-style governance. Starmer has embraced a disastrous cocktail of socialist economics and appeasement-minded foreign policy. His decision to surrender the strategically vital Chagos Islands – a move that betrays British sovereignty and plays into the hands of geopolitical rivals – beggars belief: weak, short-sighted, and servile to the orthodoxy of so-called “international law”. Britain is no longer a beacon of strength but a cautionary tale of what happens when a nation sacrifices its interests to placate international elites.
The troubles afflicting Europe more broadly run deep, and the continent’s trajectory appears increasingly grim. Mass migration, as in Biden’s America, is a paralysing force, eroding social cohesion and overwhelming public services. Europe is grappling with an economic malaise that borders on catastrophic.
This is decline by design – a continent offering itself on the altar of ideological delusions. Centralised bureaucracies impose crippling regulations, monetary policies stifle growth, and the EU’s corporatist economic model enriches elites while gutting industry. The result? Productivity and growth that lag behind the United States, leaving Europe a depressing case study in how not to govern.
The political landscape is equally bleak. The collapse of the French government this week is just the latest episode in a long-running drama of dysfunction. Emmanuel Macron, for all his pretensions of being Europe’s reformist saviour, has been reduced to a lame-duck president, thwarted by a fractured and hostile parliament. Germany, once deemed to be the economic powerhouse of the EU, finds itself in a similar bind, heading for early elections while its economy is battered by crippling energy policies. At a time when strong leadership is desperately needed, Europe’s elites are playing at committee politics and virtue-signalling, oblivious to the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.
Enter Trump 2.0, the antithesis of Europe’s managed decline. His bold, unapologetic vision for America is a direct challenge to the wrong-headedness and complacency of Europe’s leaders. They see his brashness as a threat, when it is precisely what the West needs – a common sense American president unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths and act decisively on the world stage.
Consider Trump’s approach to Nato. Unlike Europe’s feckless leaders, who have treated the alliance as a free ride on America’s dime, Trump demands accountability. By insisting that member states pay their fair share, he not only strengthens Nato but exposes the hypocrisy of Europeans who lecture on “shared values” while shirking their responsibilities.
On energy, the contrast is equally stark. While the UK and much of Europe cripples itself with net zero dogma, Trump is promising to unleash America’s energy sector, in an attempt to secure both economic stability and strategic autonomy. His policies, rooted in pragmatism, recognise that energy independence is achievable without sacrificing growth or security. Europe’s energy crisis is no accident; it is the direct result of leaders who prioritise green ideology over common sense.
To blame Trump for Europe’s woes, as some predictably do and will, is to miss the point entirely. If dark days are ahead, they are not the result of Trump’s rise but the culmination of Europe’s own failures – its refusal to tackle mass migration, its suicidal economic policies, and its unwillingness to defend national sovereignty. Trump’s return is not a threat but an opportunity – a chance for Europe to reverse course and embrace a bold new direction.
The choice before Europe is stark: continue down the path of ruin, or follow Trump’s lead and reclaim its destiny. His vision, with its emphasis on strength, self-determination, and unflinching realism, offers a lifeline to a continent on the brink. Whether Europe seizes it or squanders it will define the future of the West.
Trump’s return is not a cause for despair but a call to action – a reminder that the West still has a chance to reclaim its greatness, if only it has the courage to act.
Lee Cohen, a senior fellow of the Bow Group and the Bruges Group, was adviser on Great Britain to the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and founded the Congressional United Kingdom Caucus
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Publish date : 2024-12-05 12:43:00
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