Rory Stewart

That is the new normal.

No, no, no, no.

Can I interrupt and be mean to him?

Yeah.

You've just told us what actually is interesting about the U.S.

National Security Strategy.

Not that it's saying that Europe needs to take responsibility for its defense.

That was a line from the first Trump administration.

That was a line from Biden.

That was a line from Obama.

And that's what Elbridge Colby was selling yesterday in his speech.

As you pointed out, the key point of the US national security strategy is it's talking about civilizational erasure in Europe.

It's talking about putting its energy behind the populist far right in Europe.

It's talking about us not being democracies.

So,

What actually Starmer is doing, if I'm going to criticize him, is he is still buying into the Department of Defense rhetoric, which has been running for 10 years, which is that it's Europe's fault.

We didn't spend enough on defense and that the US criticism of Europe is perfectly legitimate.

If only we'd spent more on defense, we'd be able to stand on our own two feet.

But that isn't really what Trump's policy is about.

Trump's policy, that's now just – it's increasingly clear that's just a mask.