Thirty years ago, this writer craned his neck from a middle seat deep inside a massive Boeing 747, on my first-ever international flight.
I was coming to America as a graduate student.
I really wanted to have a glimpse of the continent of Europe as we flew over.
In January 2023, I lowered the shades while crossing the same expanse.
What a difference these years have made.
If I seem unimpressed, it's because I share the same lack of enthusiasm on the European status quo with our (returning) President Donald Trump and his Cabinet.
The fact is, they take this farther.
Discussing the EU, President Trump recently said, "It was formed in order to screw the United States."
Add to the mix, Vice President JD Vance, who wrote, in a text made public last week, "I just hate bailing Europe out again," Vice President JD Vance wrote in a text made public last week.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concurred, chiming in, in the same text chain, saying, "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC."
One can fully understand their frustration.
Defense is one area where Europe’s piggybacking on the U.S. is transparent.
Thirty-four European countries who are part of the EU or NATO spend, combined, less than half of that of the U.S. though they have twice as many people, spending less than half on defense as a share of their economy.
The "free-rider" nature of Europe’s dependence on the United States is most egregious when it comes to the war in Ukraine which potentially brings the Russian bear closer to the EU borders.
According to Kiel Institute for the World Economy, as of December 2024 since the start of the war, the U.S. has committed USD $128 Billion to the war effort, while the entirety of the European Union committed USD $124 Billion; almost all intelligence that the Ukrainian military is successful in using comes from U.S. sources and methods.
Europe has been very vocal in deriding the American model of capitalism while cloning the American example of eviscerating its manufacturing base by shipping them abroad.
Europe’s economy is more dependent on agriculture and tourism now than ever post World War II. As a result, Europe has hollowed out its industrial corridors, fueling unemployment and discontent, as well as emergent leaders more aligned intellectually with the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement in the U.S.
MAGA clearly shares its antipathy to deindustrialization.
Meanwhile, Europe continually derides America’s "winner-takes-most" economic mindset, and thus disincentivizes risk-taking which fuels innovation, missing out on higher-value jobs, and potentially trillions in new wealth.
Consequently, Europe failed to become a magnet for global talent; it can be argued that much of its woes from unchecked immigration comes from its failure to be a destination of choice for the right kind of people.
Even when Europe claims to be a success story, as in its pledge to reach "Net-Zero" by 2050, these claims are misguided at best.
For example, Denmark boasts of reducing per-capita carbon emission by half since 2000, but much of it was done by outsourcing manufacturing jobs to China, claims Global Carbon Project, a research outfit.
All in, Europe’s per-capita income is about 25% less than the U.S., the same relative position it held twenty years ago, even when the U.S. population rose by a third, while Europe’s population remained about the same.
That brings me back to the stance taken by the Trump administration on Europe.
What they are doing is slaughtering sacred cows of the existing global order.
As The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat commented recently, "everything Trump is doing and saying, and everything his vice president is saying and doing, is ruthlessly stripping away pretenses around the United States, its alliances and the situation in the world."
These pretenses include the assumption that the U.S. can keep on playing the global enforcer on multiple theaters, and that Europe deserves to be an equal partner with the U.S. in an alliance that is devoted primarily to its security.
None of it is rooted in facts on the ground.
Growing up in India, much of the history of the world that I was taught centered around Europe. Even if it was meant to be mostly glorification, this writer learned some truths deserving of reiteration.
Both World Wars began in Europe before engulfing the planet.
The Holocaust happened there also.
Atrocities in the Congo happened due to the actions of rulers from Europe, as did the slave trade and slavery in the Americas and elsewhere, apartheid in South Africa, the Bengal Famine, pogroms in Russia, as well as many other crimes against humanity.
Now more than ever, we see a Europe mercilessly expansionary, lacks moral compass, is racist and antisemitic, and downright devious in its affairs globally.
If Europe claims to have pivoted to rules of law, if it claims any hallelujah moment post-World War II, it lost teeth to carry out its nefarious ways of the past, and only because the US guaranteed its security.
That is the reason I am so unimpressed with the howls of foul that emanate from Brussels or Paris because history does not support Europe’s holier-than-thou attitude.
Europe has become the Flyover Continent of the world, and she has only herself to blame. Threats and opportunities for the U.S. are more pronounced in the Indo-Pacific theater, in the Mideast, and in Africa. It is time we reserve our entreaties and our punches for where it truly counts.
All opinions are of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent that of any organization he may be part of. The author alone is responsible for any error or omission.
Partha Chakraborty, Ph.D., CFA is an economist, a statistician, and a financial analyst by training. Currently he is an entrepreneur in Water technologies, Blockchain and Wealth Management in the US and in India. Dr. Chakraborty lives in Southern California. Read Dr. Chakraborty's Reports --- More Here.