As Volodymyr Zelensky’s extraordinary meeting in DC last week shows, Donald Trump’s clear-eyed realism and pragmatism is fast turning the tables on the narratives of the post-war world, including the long-held relationships between the USA and Europe.
Certainly, Trump’s skepticism about global entanglements signals a potential American pullback from Europe. Where some see crisis, Britain should see opportunity. Ideally, this would be a moment to step out from Uncle Sam’s shadow, draw on Britain’s historical resilience, and redefine its role as a sovereign power capable of global leadership.
The great obstacle, however, is Keir Starmer’s Government — incompetent, contradictory, and woefully disconnected from the British people’s needs and the nation’s interests.
The great historian Dr David Starkey has provided robust insight into this situation, observing recently in an interview for GB News that Trump’s strength lies in his unflinching view of the world as it is, not as idealists wish it to be.
Trump deals in the hard currency of power and money, not the soft platitudes of diplomacy. With war waging, this is not the ideal time for misty-eyed nostalgia about Nato. To the rescue of America, under Trump’s gaze, the nation is fixed on its own borders and balance sheets. The days of the United States as Europe’s unquestioned guarantor are over.
For Britain, this could represent, not a loss but a liberation—a chance to reclaim the mantle of leadership that your proud history demands.
Consider the woeful state of Europe: a patchwork of backward-looking nations, crippled by bureaucratic inertia in Brussels and a lack of financial resources and martial resolve.
Trump’s Realism with Europe Should Be A Golden Opportunity for Britain—I fear Labour will squander it, writes Lee Cohen
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Germany’s industrial might is faltering under self-inflicted energy woes; France clings to delusions of grandeur while its influence waned long ago. The EU, once a grand experiment, is now sinking, unable to defend its frontiers or project power beyond its borders. Who, then better to fill the vacuum? Britain—unshackled from the EU, steeped in a tradition of defiance, and armed with a global outlook—should be poised to lead. Its (admittedly depleted) naval heritage, its nuclear deterrent, and its storied ability to punch above its weight make the UKa natural candidate to assume a regional and global leadership role.
Yet this vision crashes against the rocks of Starmer’s premiership. His Labour government is a study in contradiction: pledging national renewal while kowtowing to supranational elites, preaching sovereignty while shackling Britain to net-zero fantasies that hollow out your industrial base. Starmer’s administration lacks the capacity to seize this singular moment. Instead of bold leadership, the UK is experiencing a government so misguided, it threatens Britain’s future. Where Trump sees the world’s brutal realities and acts accordingly, Starmer remains paralysed in a fog of progressive dogma and focus-group platitudes.
Starkey could not have outlined it more clearly, and Britain would do well to heed his call for sanity: Trump’s rejection of global approval in favour of practical results exposes the lunacy of Britain’s political class. Even the Conservative establishment has spent decades virtue signalling only to find themselves outmanoeuvred by a world that responds only to strength, not to sermons. In geopolitics, being strong trumps being nice, and Trump grasps this instinctively. The UK hardly needs another lecture on multilateralism; it needs a government that deals in power, that asserts its interests with the same unapologetic clarity Trump brings to America’s.
A potential American pullback—whether from NATO commitments or broader European security—should force Britain to stand tall. Its military, though stretched, retains a professionalism and reach that dwarfs most European peers. Its intelligence networks, honed by the Five Eyes partnership, give an edge no Brussels bureaucracy can match. With America stepping back, Britain could pivot from junior partner to senior statesman, brokering alliances, securing trade, and stiffening Europe’s resolve against threats from Moscow to Beijing. This isn’t about abandoning the transatlantic bond but recognising its evolution—and a chance to lead rather than follow.
Though Starmer has made valiant pledges, Labour’s obsession with rehashing EU ties betrays a lack of imagination, a refusal to see Britain as anything more than a supplicant. His policies—rising taxes, green dogma, and a soft touch on migration—erode the very resilience that could make Britain a beacon for Europe. The British people, weary of managed decline, crave a leader who channels Trump’s pragmatic steel, not Starmer’s woolly approach.
In an ideal world, America’s posture shift should be the UK’s call to action. Britain has faced greater odds— from Napoleon’s legions to Hitler’s bombs—and emerged stronger. Now, with Trump’s realism laying bare the world’s truths, this is Britain’s moment to shed the shackles of deference and lead. Tragically, it seems Starmer’s government, adrift and out of touch, cannot answer that call. Britain’s hopes are tied to rising factions. This American observer wishes them Godspeed.