https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-crisis-summit-economy-war/

Up until the last few months, libs were adamant that Europe was in no way a vassal of the US; that it was just tankie nonsense.

What’s “great” about Trump is that he doesn’t care that he’s not supposed to show us how the sausage is made. He’s supposed to wrap it with a liberal, rules-based charade.

He really does love to pull back the curtain. It's also worth keeping in mind that he absolutely despises the Europeans. Recall all the abuse they levelled at him before the election when they were sure that Biden would win. Somebody like Trump, with an incredibly fragile ego, could never forgive that. The tariff war showed him which countries would stand and fight, and which would fold. The Europeans folded, and from there on he knew that they will take any and all abuse. So, now he's gleefully taking his revenge by making Europeans suffer one humiliation after another.

And Europeans now find themselves in a nightmare beyond imagining. They have angry and uncompromising Russia on their border, and they've whipped themselves into a complete hysteria over Russia invading for the past four years. They've become entirely dependent on the US for military protection and energy. They can't make a pivot away from the US because doing so would be admitting that their whole strategy failed. So, they just keep grinning while they eat shit, and hope that somehow bad orange man will go away before their economies collapse.