Michael Weiss

waiting to rearm, to invest heavily in its own defense, to take basically post-Cold War security architecture seriously, perhaps for the first time.

And they're not doing it because we're encouraging them and saying, you know, we will always be with you, we will always be by your side, but we need you to take on a greater share of the responsibility.

They're doing it now because they realize we're going in the opposite direction.

We're abandoning them.

I was in Stockholm with the former Lithuanian foreign minister and the current Swedish foreign minister on a platform in August of last year.

And I said – actually quoting Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany who had used this term decoupling from the United States.

When I said decoupling, again, not my own coinage.

I was citing the chancellor of Germany.

I mean, gasps of horror throughout the room, NATO officials, other – I think the princess of Sweden nearly passed out.

Everyone said, no, we mustn't do this.

This is impossible.

The United States has to be here.

And then after this whole fandango with Greenland, all of a sudden decoupling is not such a radioactive term.

People are beginning to say, why didn't we do this a long time ago?

You know, so I want to be very careful how I say this because this kind of shit that goes viral in a bad way.

But, you know, there is a way to instrumentalize anti-Americanism as it exists now, which is really anti-Trumpism in Europe for the greater good.

There is a benevolent form of it.

And I am very encouraging of this effort.

The Europeans should tell us, go fuck yourself every time we do something stupid or immoral or unjust or we threaten them.

And they should prepare.