Europe encounters a day with Trump in its minds

“Celebration? What is the celebration?

The diplomat asked the highest level that spent years in the Atlantic Defense Alliance not to name in order to speak freely, but why is nihilism? Day Day was a joint alliance over Nazi Germany; Hate, dictatorship, regional expansion of the third sheikhs and heinous crimes against humanity.

A lot of blood was pouring this victory. About 51 million allied and civil soldiers died during World War II, united in a chase to rid the world of Nazi scourge.

But after 80 years have passed, we are surrounded by countless news and academic analyzes that are unique to Donald Trump as a modern nail in the coffin of strong via Atlantic bonds. In Europe, the US President is seen as a president of common values ​​for decades; The participation of visions of security, democracy and the rule of law.

But is this accurate or very simple?

To get the full image about what happened to the allied relations after World War II, we cannot delete Russia, then or now.

By 1945, about 24 million Russians and other Soviets were slaughtered in the war with Germany. Without their sacrifices, as well as those in the other allies, the Nazis had not been defeated.

“One of the things we need to recognize, though, is that Russia has never been a true friend of the West,” says Michael Zantuovsky, a former Czech ambassador in Washington and London.

“During World War II, he was an ally of existential reasons. He needed any assistance (against the Nazis) that you could get. It was the same story with Western powers, to be fair. They needed to help the Soviet Union. But Russia did not plan to continue the coalition after the war.

Divisions appeared at the moment when Germany was defeated; There was even a dispute that fell on the day. Western powers witnessed the signing of the military surrender to Germany in the French city of Reims, news that broke out on May 8, 1945. The Soviet Union wanted its own, separate, and signing it with the handover of Germany in Berlin, which occupied the Soviets a day later. Russia represents on May 9 to this day.

Depending on where you are in Europe on Ve, the mood – especially this year.

Western Europe welcomes freedom, democracy and ending the Nazi threat. In the United Kingdom, for example, Several VE’s Day celebrations have been planned This year, as with every year.

But people who live in Central and Eastern Europe, such as Czechoslovakia, came out of the Nazi occupation in 1945 only to end in the shadow of communist regimes – whether they love it or not.

As a result, Ambassador Zantovsky describes his country’s relationship with today as “mysterious”.

“The western part of Czechoslovakia has been liberated by the American forces, and the rest of the country by Soviet soldiers,” as he told me.

Czechoslovakia was seized by the Communist Party in 1948 and was completely invaded by the Soviet Union after two decades. “During the Communist times, the role of the West was suppressed and marginalized in World War II. We were told that we owe our freedom (from the Nazis) to the Soviets.”

Russia coincides with victory today Military marches – President Vladimir Putin knows the deep feeling of the national pride that the Russians still feel the defeat of the Nazi regime in 1945. It is not a coincidence that he publicly describes the leadership of the “Nazi” Ukraine as a way to photograph them in Russian eyes.

For this year, President Putin called for a three -day ceasefire with Ukraine It is supposed, because, without interruption, it wants to focus on the Russian military muscle showing in front of a crowd of foreign figures, including President Xi Jinping from China.

The official reason that Putin gave the ceasefire to Ukraine is “human reasons”. The paradox is completely, because it was the one who ordered the invasion of that sovereign country.

This invasion brought back difficult memories of the suspicion of their occupation and suppression. “For this reason, we feel strongly with Ukraine,” says Zantovsky.

“It is just a few hundred kilometers away. Our feeling of security is threatened again.”

This is why most Europeans were very shocked by President Trump’s clear respect, even respecting Putin, while simultaneously threatens the regional integrity of traditionally close allies such as Canada and Denmark.

Europe looked at the United States as its friend since World War II. Washington poured money on the continent that crashed the war in the late 1940s – including West Germany, which was grateful to the United States to return it to the barn after the horrors of Nazism. The United States also gave security guarantees after the war; NATO was founded in 1949.

But this was not the American altruism, as Trump suggests. It was also a marriage of comfort, of some kind.

After World War II, the United States is concerned about the spread of communism. I was concerned that Europe, with its economy and infrastructure in Thaters, was subject to local communist parties and abroad from a Sofiti Union expanded. By moving to help rebuild Europe, the United States was gaining a geographical foothold on the threshold of the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.

The idea of ​​”the West” – made from countries that share security goals and values ​​- was born.

Can we now witness her death, or gradual strangulation? With no common enemy anymore, friendship is definitely abandoned. In 2025, the President of the United States no longer feels threatened by Russia.

“The joint history was the basis for the relationship (Transatlantic) for eight decades, but it is no longer enough to push the relationship forward anymore,” Julie Smith, the former NATO Ambassador, told me.

The war in Ukraine is the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. With Russia’s economy equally firmly, it has the ability to spread.

Europe, unlike the United States, still feels threatened by Russia. Capitals have left all over the continent unable to speak and nervousness by Trump and it seems that it blames Ukraine, not Moscow, for bloodshed.

The television press conference at the White Casablanca office in late February, where Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, tried to, apparently The bait, President of Ukraine, President of Ukraine Voludmir ZelinskiIt was a turning point in public opinion and European politics.

A Yougov poll indicated in March that, after 80 years of Day, the vast majority of Western Europeans (78 % in the United Kingdom, 74 % in Germany, and 75 % in Spain) are now viewing the White House as a major threat to peace and security in Europe.

In eastern Europe, the field of influence of the former Soviet Union, people fear President Trump’s position on Ukraine only Chairman of the National Council in his expansion engine.

The historian and author Timothy Garton Ash says that Russia has received a recognition of “conquest crimes” in Ukraine.

And with Trump repeatedly accused in Europe of free loading and taking advantage of the United States, there is tension between leaders throughout the continent that they can be left alone to defend themselves for the first time since World War II. Defense spending is a great topic in European capitals.

“The message that Berlin has taken from the first 100 days in his post is:” we cannot rely on the United States anymore, “says Peter Wetig, a former German ambassador to Washington.

This is a tremendous transformation of the Germans, who were reluctant to rebuild their military power to their country after World War II. Instead, Germany tends to be particularly over the United States for its security. There is a large part of an estimated 100,000 American soldiers stationed in Europe in Germany. The United States stores nuclear weapons in the country as well.

Trump’s shock among German -supporting German politicians is usually deep that he has paid a change in the country’s constitution this spring. Parliamentarians Voice to lift the Berlin debt brakes that have long been established – Who is limited to government spending – in order to invest intense and increase the army in the country.

Ursula von der Lin, German Defense Minister, is now the head of the European Commission in Brussels. It has tendencies across the Atlantic Ocean and spoke carefully, but even thoroughly summarized the current situation: “The West as we knew it, no longer exists.”

However, it is not possible to blame the axis away from Europe by the United States on Trump.

China, not Russia, was seen by the White House as a number one strategic threat for some time now. In 2012, US President Barack Obama said he wanted to focus his foreign policy on Asia, and Trump’s ancestor Joe Biden has invested a lot of time trying to support China’s allies in the Pacific.

Ambassador Weetj says, whichever foreign policy focuses on Asia and withdraws greatly from Europe.

It is called “End of the era – the end of participation in Europe.”

Despite all the remainder of the European hand, there is recognition among the leaders of the continent, 80 years after a day, it is time to take more responsibility for paying their defensive capabilities, rather than relying on Washington.

Some also see potential to reset the relationship. Ambassador Zantuovsky calls this “an opportunity that has led to the crisis, a sense of urgency in the safety that has not existed (in Europe) over the past thirty years.”

Perhaps, but during the Cold War, Western European societies had a younger population and more thin welfare countries. The spending of 4 % or 5 % of the gross domestic product was on the defense.

Analysts say this can be required again to separate Europe from American security support, but it is not clear whether voters at the present time will accept the required painful concessions – in terms of cuts in government spending on health or education, for example – in exchange for enhancing the defense capabilities in their country.

This is particularly the case in European countries geographically from the orbit of Russia, where the feeling of immediate threat feels less severe.

Mr. Garton Ash asks if there is a transitional path from the current NATO led by the United States to the European NATO, where the United States is still on the table but Europe holds the responsibility of its security.

“We need a new generation of political leaders who agree to the challenge,” says political historian Sir Anthony Sildon.

He added: “The need can often advance to the right people,” and it reflects European and American leaders in the aftermath of World War II.

“Something is definitely broken. The future is certain. Do we have to go to war periodically to realize how terrible it is, and forcing us to work together?”

After eight decades of hell they suffered, the veterans of World War II will tell you that they are warmly hoped that it is not so.