March 23, 2026

With Trump’s second term in the White House, transatlantic relations entered challenging times. First came his largely understandable criticism of the European contribution to common defense, to which Europeans responded by committing to raising defense spending from 2% to 5% of their GDP. Second, came his tariff wars. On July 28, 2025, the White House announced a trade deal with the EU, reached during a meeting between Commission President von der Leyen and Trump, “fundamentally rebalancing the economic relationship between the world’s two largest economies”. The deal drew some criticism from within the EU. Third, Washington ignored the European countries’ views on the war in Ukraine. Trump did not allow them a seat at the negotiating table but lectured them in the Oval Office following his Alaska Summit with Putin. His remarks on the EU remained mostly condescending.