cordshoes it is not a problem with America, more an issue with the current Leader. I appreciate Trump isn't a young man, but he can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, set the tone for a new order and also prepare the ground for someone like Musk to takeover.
History has taught us that if you prepare for the worst & hope for the best, then you won't be under prepared. There's hype at the moment that Trump is a genius deal maker & disputer, but you have to take his words at face value and act accordingly. What he is saying is threatening.
If we are not strong, collective and rapid in our response, Europe is in great danger of being sidelined, weakened, split and picked off. The US and Russia have gone over our heads, as have the US and Israel. Saudi Arabia is making geopolitical moves and China is always lurking in the background.
If you tolerate bullshit, this is what you get. Saudi Arabia should be a pariah state, and yet it now finds itself as the facilitator to a global carve up.
Also Europe has a number of other important social & economic issues that will become more pressing in the upcoming years, and it's time the nettle was grasped.
I think that the UK has fooled itself for a long time (possibly always) with this idea of a special relationship with the USA. It's more a question of us being useful fools and them stroking our ego's of being important. It's now time to become eurocentric.
Also, it's not as if the US hasn't enjoyed massive benefits of being the world's peacekeeper for 80 yrs. Post WW2 they saw the weakened British Empire, saw the advantages of replacing it with softer power and the financial benefits to the industro-military sector of global warfare.