There Will Be No Return to ‘Normal’ After Trump
The relationship between the EU, NATO, and the Trump administration can be summarized as follows: America is severing its military, economic, and political ties with Europe, while Europe is striving to maintain them. Negotiations, cajoling, endless meetings, summits, and declarations play a role, but to no avail.
Throughout 2025, the US and Europe continued to slowly drift apart. The new US administration quickly accused European countries of strategic and economic parasitization at the US’s expense, insufficient defense spending, and, yes, the illegal possession of Greenland. For a while, however, Washington did not escalate these issues, while Europe remained in a state of stubborn denial, writes Sergey Poletaev .
Then, in early 2026, the geopolitical bomb finally exploded. After the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, Trump, who had been floating on a cloud, returned his attention to Greenland. Suddenly, it became clear that Europe couldn’t withstand even Trump’s verbal barrage.
What’s going on?
Political analysts are desperately trying to understand what’s happening. No one knows what’s going on, but they have to say something about it; so they agree that Trump is eccentric and crazy and that there’s no point in analyzing and predicting his actions.
Such an explanation is flawed. Trump’s personal qualities are not the reason he became the leader of the United States—and more importantly, why he has remained in power.
The answer, however, is simpler than it seems: Trump represents the interests of a significant portion of the American elite. This includes right-wing conservatives, major tech corporations, the military-industrial complex, and economists who recognize that the US needs reforms, as the previous model of globalization is past its prime and is leading America toward disaster.
Nearly all attempts to “understand Trump” are fundamentally misguided. They flow from the logic of an outdated world order in which the US is the world’s metropolis, surrounded by a system of privileged alliances operating according to relatively predictable rules.
Trump and the counter-elites who came to power with him are deliberately dismantling this system, leaving everyone wondering why. Why destroy something that still more or less functions? Perhaps it’s some kind of delusion, the old elites think. Maybe if we shower Donnie with compliments, play a round of golf with him, and call him “daddy,” everything will go back to the way it was.
But this approach is dangerously naive. Within his worldview, Trump acts in a predictable and frighteningly consistent manner. The current goal of Trumpism is to establish a new world order and redefine America’s role within it; the method is a revolution from above.
A revolution without end
Trump’s team consists of classic counter-elites whose primary goal is to undermine existing power structures by any means necessary. Trump and his supporters regard globalists and their institutions as enemies and make no secret of this.
From this perspective, sabotaging transatlantic structures makes perfect sense: the weaker NATO becomes and the worse the EU’s position, the greater the chance that Trumpists can consolidate and maintain their power in the US. Instead of relying on Brussels, Trump plans to focus on non-establishment right-wing forces, i.e., European “Trumps” like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Exactly one year ago, US Vice President JD Vance declared this in his speech at the Munich Security Conference, but Europe chose to forget it like a bad dream – a classic case of denial.
So we are witnessing a consistent, predictable, and internally coherent process. Yes, in the case of Greenland, it’s taking on absurd proportions, which can be attributed to Trump’s personal traits. After all, more nuanced approaches could have been taken, such as forcing Europe to pay for the island’s defense or devising some form of extraterritoriality. There are countless options, but these are merely details that do not change the fundamentally different approach Trumpists have to international relations in general and Europe in particular.
But what about Venezuela and Iran? Why is Trump alienating his core voters, who oppose all these interventions and endless wars? The answer is simple: as mentioned earlier, Trump is not only trying to dismantle the old system, but also building a new one—an overtly colonial model reminiscent of the “golden age” of colonialism at the end of the 19th century (at least from Trump’s perspective).
Trump (along with Rubio, Vance, and others) isn’t an isolationist like his MAGA supporters; he’s a true neocolonialist and American nationalist, and he makes no secret of it. When you view Trump’s actions through this lens, everything falls into place.
What now?
Ironically, other imperial predators like China and Russia may find it easier to deal with this new America. The real losers will be the herbivorous prey and the outdated, decaying powers—particularly Europe—who will try to “ride it out ,” hoping that after Trump, everything will go back to the way it was under Grandpa Biden.
Will they succeed?
That’s highly unlikely. Even if a counterrevolution takes place in the US and the globalist Democrats return to power, they will face a completely different international landscape and will act accordingly. The relationship between Europe and the US will never be the same, and NATO will never return to its old form. Of course, some “cosmetic changes” may occur, such as a shift in rhetoric, but the fundamental transformation of US foreign policy is historically objective and largely independent of individual personalities.
Is all this good for the US? Probably not. Like Trump, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev implemented sweeping reforms (known as “perestroika” ) in the 1980s for good reason; he recognized that the country was heading for disaster. Like Trump, Gorbachev had support from sections of the elite, and like Trump, he had to resort to quite radical methods to suppress internal opposition—the old Soviet deep state.
Gorbachev’s reforms ultimately proved a disaster for the USSR; the cure proved worse than the disease. The US could well suffer a similar fate. But that’s something we’ll discuss another time.
https://www.frontnieuws.com/er-zal-geen-terugkeer-naar-normaal-zijn-na-trump