– US Coast Guard
At the turn of 2025, as Donald Trump began his second presidency, Vice President JD Vance’s very first address to Europe already signaled a major break with the bloc.
In what has become known as the Munich Speech, Vance spent much of his time decrying European values, chastising member states about their internal politics, and undermining the long-running transatlantic relationship, suggesting that it was conditional after all.
Policymakers panicked. The speech raised some alarming prospects: what if the unthinkable happened? Could a staunch ally for more than half a century so easily turn its back on Europe? But no one could have expected the situation to deteriorate so much further and so soon when, just one year later, Trump seemed to threaten war with Europe by insisting the US would acquire Greenland, using force if necessary.
The President’s actions elsewhere in the world, which have seen him invade Venezuela and capture its President Nicolás Maduro, and launch a bombing campaign against Iran that has now been ongoing for more than three months, have underlined the unpredictability of the regime in Washington.
