Krugman; When America stood for freedom, The End of the Free World?

 

Trump wants to MAGAfy Europe, too

There was a time, not so long ago, when America was the leader of the free world. It was the first among equals within an alliance of nations bound together by shared values — above all a commitment to democracy and civil liberties. 

From London to Berlin to Tokyo, in the aftermath of genocide and the utter devastation of World War II, America – as Ronald Reagan put it – was the shining city on the hill. 

Updated National Security Strategy for the United States. Much of the document is vague, meandering and self-contradictory. But it becomes clear and focused when it turns to Europe. Quite simply, Trump and those around him hate Europe. 

And they hate it because it still honors the ideals they’re abandoning in America.

But there’s hope, the document declares, thanks to “the growing influence of patriotic European parties,” by which it clearly means parties like Germany’s neo-Nazi AfD. 

The political scientist Henry Farrell sums it up this way: This is, quite straightforwardly, a program for regime change in Europe, aimed at turning it into an illiberal polity. 

Paul Krugman Dec 8 2025

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-this-the-end-of-the-free-world

Frida Wallnor, Carl Bildt och Niall Ferguson om USA:s nya säkerhetsplan

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/12/frida-wallnor-carl-bildt-och-niall.html