Donald Trump wants Europe to step up and make an effort to contribute to its own defense. 

European leaders are so angry that he is demanding they do so that they are throwing a tantrum and threatening to do just that. 

Volodimir Zelenskyy has talked menacingly of a European Army, Kier Starmer is making noises about stepping up defense spending, the French have as well. Even Germany, particularly angry about Trump asking the Europeans to step up, says that Europe might just do that because the US is a poopyface. 

Here's a tip: Just stop freeloading. Poland pays it's share in defense and has been more directly impacted by the dislocations of the Ukraine War but they get along with Trump better than you because paying their share creates the basis for mutual respect. https://t.co/AZFlEVNfxA

— Peter Spiliakos (@petespiliakos) February 23, 2025

Trump, I am certain, is deeply concerned that the United States may not have to devote a disproportionate fraction of our defense spending on maintaining European freeloaders. He may even be quaking in his boots or crying himself to sleep. 

After all, how will the United States recover from the blow? Without Europe draining trillions of our tax dollars while lecturing us about how awful we are, how will we survive?

This is like the 28-year-old deadbeat in his parents' basement throwing a tantrum and threatening to move out and get a job. It's not quite the threat they think it is. Perhaps if Europe joined the real world they would not only be able to defend themselves against Russia, which has an economy 1/10th the size of Europe, they might also have an incentive to jumpstart their own economies which have fallen dramatically behind America's.

Europe’s regulatory regime makes capital investment impossible, and has resulted in zero innovation and growth.

Home Depot alone is now worth more than all the major companies founded in the EU over the last 50 years combined.

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/cjeCQgvLuU

— The Big Picture (@Big_Picture_89) February 23, 2025

Europe has a horribly sclerotic economy hampered by overregulation and bureaucratic bloat. When Americans think of Europe we think of the European elite and the glories of the past, but the average European has the purchasing power of relatively poor people in the US. GDP per capita in Europe is smaller than in Mississippi. 

The United States could do much better than we do, but compared to the rest of the world we are running laps around everybody. That is the one thing about our economy Biden said that was correct. Things sucked here, but compared to everybody else we were the envy of the world, which is why, if we get our economic and government policies in order we really will go into a new golden age. 

One data point to consider: the US GDP per capita is 32,000 a year higher than in Germany. 

Europe is deindustrializing due to NetZero policies. Their immigration policy is harming their country even more than ours is harming ours. 

Obviously, the District of Columbia has some explaining to do because it sure isn't "innovation" or "productivity" that makes it so rich. I wonder what does. 

When Mississippi outpaces the average European Union country by $10,000 in GDP per capita, my only question is whether the Europeans have the capacity to reform enough to start building things again and whether their own citizens have the gumption to provide for the common defense. 

What I do NOT wonder is whether the United States will be harmed if they succeed in ginning up the money and manpower to defend themselves. That would be better for them and for us. 

Let’s pretend the UK and EU create an army and implement conscription- it’s going to be a hilarious experiment.

-35hr working week for the army
-Demands of work from home
- Strikes (from the French), Unions for the British
- GenZ TikToking their every move and quiet quitting https://t.co/LixQgP1OgG

— Tatjana de Kerros-Budkov (@tdekerros) February 20, 2025

I really want to love my European friends and still have warm feelings for the home of Western Civilization. But it is bizarre in the extreme that an economic union that has a GDP 10 times Russia's and a population base more than three times Russia cannot adequately defend itself against a gas station with nuclear weapons from the 1970s and tanks from the 1960s. 

If that is true, Europe is already lost anyway. I fear they already are.

A reality check for Macron and the EU. Without the US there is no NATO, to build a comparable EU Army will take a seismic distribution of current EU spending plans.
You can have all the hissy fits you want over Vance’s speech, but a federalist EU army will NEVER happen pic.twitter.com/ClNK7AleiD

— #Marcher (@MarcherReborn) February 16, 2025

Vlad the mad Putin is a bad guy. A dictator. He may have imperial ambitions. But with population and economic comparisons like that Europe has no excuse to be afraid of him. None. 

If you disagree with that, show your work. And if the logic is that Europe is tired, sclerotic, lazy, and weak, then that proves my point. 

If you say "nuclear weapons," you are forgetting that the EU is a nuclear power as well, with much better technology. 

"450 million citizens in the EU. More than the US and Canada combined". Chancellor frontrunner Merz says he wants a more integrated Europe as envisioned by Macron and Adenauer. Even a European Army pic.twitter.com/fKrYHC4Wb7

— Mariska den Eelden 🇪🇺🇳🇱 (@eeldenden) February 18, 2025

I don't expect the US to pull out of NATO, at least not until Europe can stand on its own, but all the handwaving about how unfair Trump is to call Europe out for being deadbeats is lazy and stupid. 

Again: Europe has 3x the population and 10x the economic power. If they can't build a deterrent, they are not a civilization anymore. How do you save a civilization that won't save itself? 

UKRAINE: Zelensky proposes a European Army with Ukraine at its core. His only hope to remain in power is if he can unify and militarize the EU against Russia. pic.twitter.com/PqNetJbw9t

— @amuse (@amuse) February 15, 2025

Trump, I expect, loves to see Europeans grousing that they are so offended that they will take their marbles and go home to build their own militaries. 

That is, after all, what he is asking for.