Marcus Walker

during the past year has not only stepped up the rhetoric against European allies in various ways, but in the clash over Greenland, he seems to be communicating that for the US, it's more important to control the Western Hemisphere, including owning Greenland, and that if NATO is a casualty of that, then so be it.

So the fear on the European side is that the commitment that's needed as the glue is simply no longer there.

Even if a compromise is found on the Greenland issue, things will never be the same.

A line has been crossed here because of

Trump's willingness really to consider all options, including force, against the US's own allies.

Indeed, this Greenland issue has brought together both of the areas where the Trump administration and the Europeans have been in conflict.

Security on the one hand and trade and tariffs on the other, with Trump threatening tariffs from the 1st of February and later escalating from June unless he is allowed to buy and own Greenland.

So we see these two fields of dispute coming together and calling the entire relationship into question.

Now, for Europe, this poses a very awkward question of whether there really is a partnership with the US anymore, and if there isn't, whether Europe can actually afford to decouple from the US in both the economic sphere, because the US is an extremely important export market for Europe, and in the sphere of military security, because Europe would have to invest and rearm much, much more than it's currently planning to do if there is no military alliance with the US.

So at the moment, Europe is at a point where the relationship

is really teetering on the brink.

But the prospect of a divorce looks horrendously expensive and costly to the Europeans.

Of course, there would be costs for the United States too on both the economic front, and because the economic ties are deep in both directions, and on the military front, because Europe also offers the US bases that allow it to project power worldwide.

And also, of course, NATO has been the foundation of US influence in Europe and the wider region.

Well, if it comes to this and the Europeans at least hope that it won't and that Trump will back down from his tariff threat, then this would be an economic break on both sides of the Atlantic.

If Trump effectively tears up the trade agreement that he reached with the European Union last year by imposing further tariffs, that will take away the promised tariff reductions that Europe was about to ratify and has now suspended.

thereby harming American businesses in Europe too, for European exporters to the US.

But research does indeed show that tariffs are overwhelmingly paid by Americans.

That is what the evidence shows.

That is, tariffs are effectively a tax on American import businesses and consumers.