I have been wondering for some time what will happen between Europe and the United States when, one day, Donald Trump leaves the White House.If a Democratic president wins, will transatlantic relations return to the previous point? They will probably improve. Good manners, diplomatic coordination, and the recognition of allies will return. But I do not think we will return to the place from where we started.A future president will be able to repair the relationship with Europe, but not restore the previous trust. Trump has not necessarily brought about the end of the Atlantic Alliance, but he has brought about the end of European dependence based on the certainty that the United States would always be there.The damage that is truly difficult to repair does not lie in tariffs, military agreements, or a specific position on Ukraine. All of this can be modified through decrees, treaties, and budgetary decisions. What is irreversible is the European discovery that American policy can make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn every four years.Europe no longer distrusts only Trump. It distrusts the United States. Trump has been elected twice and his positions have a significant social base. Even if a Democratic president arrives and rebuilds relations, no one will be able to guarantee that four years later someone similar will not return.On the other hand, public opinion has already changed. A survey released by Reuters indicates that only 11% of Europeans in fifteen countries currently consider the United States an ally. In 2024, it was 22%. Another study by the Bertelsmann Foundation points out that 73% of European Union citizens believe that we should follow our own path. Relationships between countries depend on governments, but also on what their citizens feel towards one another.Distrust has already led to irreversible decisions. Europe is increasing its military spending, developing its own defense industry, and trying to reduce its strategic dependencies. Once these investments are made, Europe will have no reason to undo them, nor will any future American president be able to demand that it trust as it did before.But even the Democrats have changed. They continue to defend NATO and the transatlantic relationship, but they also demand that Europeans assume a larger share of their defense. The European Council on Foreign Relations warns that the historical bond with Europe has also weakened within the Democratic Party. Trump has accelerated the process, but he has not invented it entirely.Cooperation will continue. The United States and Europe will continue to trade, share intelligence information, and collaborate militarily. However, it will no longer be a relationship based on the security of unconditional protection, but rather on the convenience of each moment.

Suddenly, signs appear that give reason to think that the fabrications that led to the regressive phase of the transition from liberal democracies to post-democratic authoritarianism are beginning to decline. It was Milton Friedman who said that "the invisible hand of the market is superior to any other institution that regulates economic life" and that, consequently, the "social responsibility of business is to increase its profits," when the rise of capital was unfolding against the post-war mixed economy. This logic has been imposing itself at the same time that liberals and social democrats were disturbingly blurring.

"Freedom is incompatible with democracy." This memorable phrase by Peter Thiel perfectly explains what is happening in the United States, with Trumpism as its political expression. For those who believe, like the owner of PayPal, that freedom is exercised without awareness of limits, with everyone doing whatever they please (a principle directly proportional to the power of those who choose to indulge it), it is clear that democracy is an obstacle, because it is founded on the recognition of a series of rights and duties that shape cultures, on a legal framework that should obviously not permit the nihilistic behavior of those who believe that everything is permissible for them. Trump's display and exaltation of this behavior has turned it into a state doctrine, and the president has systematically dedicated himself to violating the law and the consensuses acquired in liberal democracies. From violating international borders and systematically abusing power by disregarding or eliminating any legal principle that inconveniences him, to the attempt to extend his arbitrary worldview to the entire planet, Trump's despotism is a blatant application of the Thiel principle.

The booing of JD Vance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan has become the audible representation of a growing sentiment within the European Union. The arrogance of Trumpism has awakened a imperceptible, wounded European pride that is beginning to surface. The "rupture" that the Canadian Prime Minister Mark CarneyThe debate that began in Davos has also started on this side of the Atlantic. It is still embryonic, more declarative than real. But the EU has already defined the playing field for the confrontation with the United States that it is prepared to fight: the digital space.

We can't stop talking about Trump. Because he's the president of the United States, because he's in 24/7 communication mode, and because his presidency is shaking the world, and not for the better. In fact, with the threat to Greenland, Europe has finally felt definitively abandoned and homeless. Trump is dismantling what, since 1945, had been the roof of European security. According to the new and dark national security doctrine, Washington considers us merely a civilization on the verge of extinction and believes we will only be saved if we surrender to the far right.