>>25548527
the old order has been over for some time, orange man is just openly acknowledging it, only this frankness is new. when you say he's playing into putin's hands what you really mean is that putin acknowledged the same thing earlier and was hissed at for this
america has objectively lost its hegemony, its unipolar moment. orange man is going to try to restore american hegemony in the long term, but the first step to that is acknowledging that it needs to be restored, that is, that it presently does not exist
the way you gain or regain hegemony is by outcompeting other pretenders. that's called great power politics. so america will be playing as a great power, this implies a patchwork of shifting alliances because any great power cannot fully trust another great power as their end goals, global hegemony, are fundamentally incompatible.
loyalty to allies is still a strong strategy, but you can't tie yourself to a player whose position is very bad, let alone an aggressive loser that keeps picking fights they can't win, has no political coherence, is wide open to foreign influence and factional conflict, and will cease to exist in a generation because of disastrous demographics and rampant uncontrollable immigration that has already exceeded in magnitude the so-called great migration period that put an end to western rome
how can europe actually strengthen the position of the USA? britain (with canada and australia) is a relevant negotiation partner, china is a peer competitor and a dire economic threat, japan, taiwan, and south korea are suppliers of vital technology, what does the us need eu for? america makes everything you make, the alliance is anti-synergistic economically, and politically and militarily europe is a net negative, it creates problems that america has to solve. a market for american exports? you'll buy it up anyways, you've already been forced to, you don't need to be an ally for that
they're breaking free of you, they're dumping you like a cluster b girlfriend that gives them headache. when they're a hegemon again, you'll come beg for their friendship anyway, you'll have no choice. and it's not like you can substantially help any of america's rivals in your present conditions. if you try, they'll tell you to stop, and you will listen. they will still have american troops in europe, and their companies still own your media, and your businesses are loyal to america and will move there on short notice. and as a rival you're not impressive, you're behind britain and china, in the league with russia and india, both having some advantage over you, russia having more weapons and a wartime army, and india having a huge demographic advantage and entering a period of double-digit economic growth.
most likely europe will become a junior ally of britain lmao. remember that britain already has boots on the ground in germany. and it's already dictating its will re ukraine, which is particularly easy with an obvious british agent as german foreign minister, who got a degree from oxford without even showing up for classes