Europe has little choice but to look past Washington now that Trump has revealed his true colors. He confirmed that he is a businessman, not a statesman; for him, all relationships are transactional — even those with trusted allies. Germany is “very bad” because it spends less than two percent of GDP on defense and enjoys a sizable trade surplus, says Trump. Guilty as charged.

But the relationship between the United States and its European allies is about much more than who pays what. The magic of the Western world is that it left behind this zero-sum, each-for-its-own world. After too many wars, the Atlantic democracies realized that escaping bloodshed meant fashioning an international community that rested on trust, consensual rules, multilateral institutions, and open trade. As a matter of course, members of this community sacrificed short-term gain in the service of long-term solidarity. The result has been an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity.