As European politicians mourn the end of their honeymoon with America, it might be the time to let them know that there was no marriage in the first place. On April 2 2025, Donald Trump announced his decision to impose tariffs on nearly all goods imported in the United States. Europe, despite having been a loyal U.S ally for the better part of a century, is now facing 20% tariffs on all the goods it exports to a once believed to be friendly nation. America’s newly-founded economic protectionism has sent shockwaves throughout the world. It seemed only yesterday that Trump single-handedly decided to put an end to the Ukrainian war, causing great panic anger amongst Western allies. The explosive meeting Trump had with Zelensky on the 28th of February 2025, in which he warned that the Ukrainian war, if pursued, could lead the world into World War III, had in the past been met with continuous horrified reactions across various Western media outlets. Many renowned publications, such as Politico and The New York Times, had even implied that Trump is a Russian asset, willing to sell off the interests of his country to benefit Russia’s. The underlying assumption is that the West is an alliance of countries binded by values such as democracy, freedom and peace, and that America’s interests lies within those values. Trump’s refusal to play alongside Europe as it once did, whether it’s by imposing sweeping tariffs or by pulling out of Ukraine, is not only a betrayal of America’s friendship with Europe, but also of the values that they all stood together for. However, this narrative seems to be completely detached from reality. Those familiar with American history and politics should know that America has no friends, but only interests and tools to pursue them. From Donald Trump and the Conservative party’s perspective, the Ukraine war is costly and pointless. Before it was needlessly poked by Western aggressions and threats of military expansion at its borders, Russia had from its Yeltsin days been a relatively docile and effaced power, willing to cooperate with Western countries. The launching of the war, however, ignited Russian nationalist and anti-Western sentiment, and rekindled Russian and Chinese relations. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have affirmed China to be a greater threat to American interests than Russia. This was underlined in the 2022 US’ National Security Strategy Report in which China was dubbed the « most comprehensive and serious challenge to U.S national security ». Such a tagline was granted to China, not Russia, despite the US being at that moment actively engaged in a proxy war with the latter. This highlights the recognition from both parties that the war was pursued with aggressive intent rather than a defensive one. The Trump administration’s decision to recalculate America’s costs and losses in Ukraine was not made out of sympathy for Russia, but concern for American interests. By « American interests », I mean the desire to safeguard American hegemony throughout the world. Allowing China to thrive whilst curbing an already weakened Russia was a strategic failure from the United States. The recent DeepSeek breakthrough, which wiped out nearly a trillion dollars in US stocks from the market upon release, had already heightened pre-existent fears amongst American elites of an America falling behind the hegemonic race. There is a Chinese proverb that reads: « the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind » (螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后). Its meaning is simple : there is an order in the food chain. While you are busy stalking your prey, do not forget that a predator might lurk behind to hap you too. The United States has dominated the 20th century as an apex predator, carefully eliminating rivals through political pressure, wars, sanctions and coups. But the world is changing, and just because one was at the top of the food chain yesterday does not mean there he will stand tomorrow. From the American right’s perspective, it is far more beneficial to embark in a Sino-US trade war than to continue funnelling resources in a disadvantageous foreign conflict. Trump believes that the only way for America to win the Sino-US competition is to re-industrialise America so as to become less dependent on Chinese exports.
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