Statements and speeches last week from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth have been treated as the end of the world by the transatlantic politico-military establishment. That is not quite right, but it’s fair to say that it is a clear statement that the United States-Europe relationship must fundamentally change if it is to endure.

The proper way to think about the words is to analogize them to a marriage. One partner, after years of growing frustration, finally tells the other that things must change or they’re out.

That puts the onus on the other partner to decide: do they want a renewed relationship that changes to meet the other partner’s needs?

The fact is that the United States and continental Europe, like an unhappily married couple, have been growing apart for decades. The US interpreted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the consequent dissolution of the Soviet Union as a victory for Reagan-era principles of liberal democracy and capitalism.