Afrasianet - In an article in the Financial Times titled "The United States Has Become the Enemy of the West", Martin Wolff highlights the radical shifts in US foreign policy under President Donald Trump 's second term.
Wolff, the paper's chief economic analyst, asserts that the Trump administration has abandoned its traditional role as leader of the global order and instead adopted an isolationist, interest-based approach, leading to its unprecedented rapprochement with Russia and other authoritarian states.
The article reviews 3 key events over the past two weeks that show this profound change: US Secretary of Defense Pete Higseth's announcement to abandon military support for Ukraine and leave full responsibility to Europe, Vice President J.D. Vance 's statement attacking European democracy, and finally Trump's direct negotiations with Russia over Ukraine's future while ignoring European allies and the Ukrainian leadership.
transform
According to the article, on February 12, during a meeting on Ukraine in NATO, Higgseth stated that the United States is no longer concerned with European security as much as it is focused on protecting its borders and countering China.
The article questioned the prevailing view that the United States was providing more support than its European allies, and the author relies on data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which shows that total European aid to Ukraine exceeds American aid, with only 31% of total support and only 41% of military aid to Kiev.
DeVance said at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, where he expressed concerns about what he described as the "decline in democratic values" in Europe, citing the Romanian government's decision to annul the results of the last election, but the writer believes that this criticism carries some hypocrisy, as Trump himself sought to annul the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
The most serious incident – in the opinion of the article – is Trump's secret negotiations with Russia about the future of Ukraine, without involving any of the European allies or even the Ukrainian leadership itself, and Higseth has previously stressed that Ukraine will not regain its internationally recognized borders, nor will it be allowed to join NATO, which represents a clear American surrender to Moscow's conditions.
These negotiations are conducted unilaterally, while European countries have a responsibility to ensure the implementation of any agreement reached, and this shift reflects the collapse of the concept of a "united West" that has prevailed since the end of World War II.
Trump's perspective
Besides, the article notes that the Trump administration has tried to exploit the Ukrainian situation economically, as the United States demanded that Ukraine 50 percent of its rare earth resources compensate for previous military aid without providing any guarantees of future support, which Ukraine recently agreed to.
This approach reflects Trump's approach to the Russian-Ukrainian war dilemma from a purely commercial perspective, rather than a strategic or moral issue.
Wolff warns that under the Trump administration the United States is no longer the main guarantor of the existing international order, but rather an indifferent power to the fate of its traditional allies, and stresses that Europe must face this new reality by strengthening its internal cooperation and increasing its defense spending, otherwise it will become vulnerable to disintegration and domination by major powers.