The “Signalgate” scandal confirmed what Europeans already knew. The Trump administration’s disdain for Europe is deep and the transatlantic fracture is structural. While our leaders publicly play down the significance of the unravelling that is manifestly under way, few actually sound as convinced in private.

Hopes persist that Europe can prevent the most extreme manifestation of the collapse in the relationship, be it an invasion of Greenland, the withdrawal of US forces from Europe’s Nato member states or an all-out trade war. Most urgently, European leaders are focused on ensuring that if (or perhaps when) the US throws Kyiv under the bus, it is Europe collectively that will somehow succeed in securing a free, independent and democratic Ukraine. But there should be no illusion that this will happen by working in synergy with Washington or even with its tacit approval.

Signalgate was both unsurprising and shocking. It was unsurprising because the personal animosity towards European countries on display in the US national security team’s supposedly confidential group chat is not very different to what administration officials have said publicly. Think of JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference in February, the US special envoy Steve Witkoff, in his interview with Tucker Carlson, or Donald Trump himself in his ceaseless declarations and social media posts. There is remarkable consistency between the private and public pronouncements: Washington considers Europe to be obsolete, arrogant and........

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