In a café shaded by the gentle bustle of Warsaw’s old streets, the afternoon sun tilts golden across flagpoles and cobblestone, and the air holds a quiet sense of the region’s long, woven history. In such places — where echoes of tumult and peace alike linger in the architecture — observers have watched with a particular kind of unease the shifting currents of Western alliances. This unease, in many European capitals, has recently taken on a firmer shape: a dawning sense that the Atlantic bond, so central to the continent’s sense of security for decades, may be under strain.

For many Europeans, there is a name that comes up again and again in conversation about these frayed ties: Donald Trump. And there is a commentator whose voice has been returning to the theme with both clarity and introspection — Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and columnist who has lived and worked across Europe and the United States, and whose reflections extend beyond academic abstraction into the daily calculations of policymakers and citizens alike.

Applebaum has described this moment not merely as a deviation from past norms but as a rupture — a departure from expectations about U.S. leadership that many in Europe once took for granted. In her conversations with analysts and observers rooted in the continent’s capitals, she has noted how European leaders were initially shocked by Trump’s unpredictability and inconsistency, from tariff threats to abrupt shifts on Russia policy. What once might have been seen as political bluster has now, for many, become a sign of a deeper instability in U.S.–Europe relations, prompting strategic recalibrations in Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, and beyond.

In these reflections, Applebaum invokes history not as a distant backdrop, but as an active presence in the minds of Europeans who grew up in the long shadow of totalitarianism and its defeat. To them, the specter of erratic leadership — once relegated to mid‑century history texts — feels eerily present, a reminder that democratic institutions can falter if assumptions go unexamined. In conversations about NATO, Ukraine, and the future of transatlantic cooperation, she has underscored that many European governments no longer see American security guarantees as automatic. Instead, they are preparing for scenarios in which Europe must shoulder greater responsibility for its own defence and strategic autonomy — a shift not born of choice but of necessity, Applebaum suggests.

The sense of betrayal Europe feels is not only about specific policies, but about expectations — the unspoken rhythm of trust that once guided decades of cooperation. In interviews, Applebaum has pointed to the bewilderment among European elites at rapid policy shifts: one day affirmations of alliance, the next confusion, as positions on Russia, tariffs, and international norms oscillate without clear pattern. To many across the Atlantic, this is not simply ideological divergence but a challenge to the very assumptions that undergird collective security and shared values.

These shifts have real, tangible consequences: defence budgets have been rethought in Berlin; Warsaw, Vilnius, and other capitals have amplified their strategic dialogues; even in Paris and Rome discussions once focused on domestic priorities now include urgent consultations on regional security. The conversation moving through Brussels and NATO committees reflects a recognition that, in Applebaum’s words, “Europe will soon be fully responsible for its own security” in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

And yet, beneath these strategic reassessments lies a human dimension — the way in which individuals, diplomats, and citizens absorb the slow erosion of certainties. For Europeans who lived through the Cold War, then the hopeful decade after its end, the moment feels at once familiar and strange: a reminder that alliances are built not only on treaties but on shared belief in enduring principles.

In straight news terms, analysts and commentators including Anne Applebaum have highlighted growing concern in Europe about the future of U.S.–Europe relations amid unpredictable shifts in U.S. foreign policy under Donald Trump. European leaders, once confident in American leadership, are increasingly reassessing security arrangements, defence spending, and strategic autonomy in light of perceived inconsistencies in U.S. commitments.

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Sources (Media Names Only)

Public Notice La Nacion Wikipedia The Atlantic (newsletter referenced indirectly through interview context)