Is the transatlantic rupture temporary or structural? Is Donald Trump the cause of the rift, or is the US president only a symptom of underlying trends? Optimists latch on to the hope that the stability we have lost can be restored post-Trump. Having spent the past few days in Washington, I doubt it.

Even in recent history, things were not quite so bad for the transatlantic relationship. The current tensions make the first Trump administration look like a walk in the park for Europeans. It is one thing to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump did in his first term. It is quite another to bomb Iran and give Israel the green light for its war against the regime.

It is one thing to be threatened with tariffs, and have to offer empty promises, as Jean-Claude Juncker did, to buy more US goods. It is quite another to swallow 15% US tariffs, leaving a queasy-looking Ursula von der Leyen giving a thumbs up for the cameras next to a smirking Trump.

When it comes to security cooperation, Trump in his first term at least sent anti-tank Javelin missiles to Ukraine; now at best he’ll allow European governments to buy US weapons for Kyiv. Meanwhile, he is taken for a ride by Vladimir Putin as the Russian dictator gloats walking down the red carpet in Anchorage, Alaska.

Optimism can become a form of faith – and some still cling to the belief, despite all the evidence, that the good old transatlantic days will be back.

This scenario is delusional. Even if Trump were to vanish, it’s hard to see the transatlantic relationship reverting to that shared sense of kinship that characterised it in past decades. The most we........

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