The prime minister may pretend to “like and respect” Donald Trump, but elsewhere in parliament anti-Americanism is running hot. In a Lords debate on obesity last week, Labour’s Lord Brooke suggested imposing 25% tariffs on “American products which are causing us difficulties – Coca-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, McDonald’s”. The government replied that the US is an “indispensable ally”. That craven attitude may be politic today – right until it fails tomorrow.

The outlook for Britain and other countries is bleak. Wednesday is “liberation day”, when Trump’s tariffs will hit a range of goods likely to send global economies tumbling. There is near-zero expectation that Britain’s genuflections will save us from the same punishment as the rest. As for Trump demanding no VAT on US imports to the UK, that’s extorting with menaces a benefit denied to our own producers. Even if kissing the boot did appease, how cheap do we sell national dignity?

As this hurricane rages across the Atlantic, the Brexit reset is gathering speed and public support at home, and not just because the Office for Budget Responsibility warned again last week that Brexit is losing us an alarming 15% in EU trade. Before the crucial 19 May EU-UK summit, the signs are good that “the coalition of the willing” is a spirit that flows beyond armies and weapons to trade and youth mobility. Europe rearming doesn’t presage any actual confrontation with Russian armies on the ground, but the symbolism fosters a united front against rogue states to our east and west. Europeans are standing together as guardians of liberal democratic values, as Trump’s McCarthyism-on-speed intimidates institutions, rewrites history and rips up universal principles that value universities, the arts and........

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