Has Donald Trump changed America's alliances forever? | The Economist

TL;DR

Trump has permanently shifted U.S. alliances by forcing Europe to spend more on defense, making a simple return to pre-Trump partnerships impossible.

Key Points

• 1.Trump has durably changed the alliance framework, not just temporarily disrupted it. A future Democratic president cannot simply declare 'America is back' and restore pre-Trump relationships — credibility now requires sustained actions, not speeches at forums like the Munich Security Conference.
• 2.Europe's defense spending increase is the painful proof that Trump's pressure worked. The speaker, a Democrat and Middle East veteran, admits that decades of polite U.S. requests to raise NATO spending failed, while Trump's aggressive pressure actually delivered results — a lesson he hates but cannot deny.
• 3.'America First' is not going away regardless of which party wins in 2028. Even Democrats must accept a more transactional, interest-based foreign policy because the average American — like a typical Michigander — now sees NATO burden-sharing as a core expectation, not an abstract Cold War relic.
• 4.Allies still matter for U.S. security, but the partnership must be rebalanced, not abandoned. The speaker argues allied nations provided critical military support in Iraq, Afghanistan, and counterterrorism operations, and pure isolationism is impossible given globalization's direct impact on domestic issues like grocery prices.