Europe Is Bracing for a New Trade Fight With Trump. Here Are Its Options.
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The coverage treats Europe’s talk of a “trade fight” as a kind of unfortunate weather event, with Washington cast as the storm. But the premise is backwards. If European leaders are floating retaliatory tariffs and even a never-used “bazooka,” that is not restraint.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
From retaliatory tariffs to the never-before-used ‘bazooka,’ European leaders have a slate to choose from in responding to U.S. threats over Greenland.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The coverage treats Europe’s talk of a “trade fight” as a kind of unfortunate weather event, with Washington cast as the storm. But the premise is backwards. If European leaders are floating retaliatory tariffs and even a never-used “bazooka,” that is not restraint. It is an admission that they view U.S. pressure as illegitimate by default.
What gets missed is the conservative concern: reciprocity in trade and national sovereignty are not provocations. They are baseline expectations. Europe has long protected key sectors while lecturing America about open markets, then acts shocked when a U.S. president insists the relationship be rebalanced.
Tariffs are messy, but so is pretending the status quo is fair. The real test is public trust, rule of law, and America’s strategic leverage in an increasingly hard world. Trade policy should serve the nation, not soothe allies.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.