No Return to Normal? Don’t Be So Sure

For the last three years, Europeans have watched U.S. President Donald Trump take a sledgehammer to the pillars of transatlantic relations that lasted for more than seven decades. Somewhat shell-shocked, European policymakers and experts fear a second Trump term would irreparably damage a relationship that has been at the heart of their world. They worry that a parting of ways might be irreversible after eight years of Trump. And they also assume that even if a Democrat becomes the next US president, things will not—cannot—just go back to the “good old days.” A return to the status quo ante, they argue, is impossible.

This is too pessimistic. In many important ways, a Democratic win come November 2020 would see more of a return to the pre-Trump US foreign policy than Europeans currently dare to hope for.