A few weeks ago, we – co-founder Cheryl Boyd, Army Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Mike Eggers and I – visited the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. It’s one of those experiences, like visiting the Lincoln Memorial or the Statue of Liberty that makes the most cynical consider what America has meant to the world. In the case of the Netherlands American Cemetery, it sums up a long history of two countries being there for each other and the sacrifices we made. The U.S. Army pushed the Nazis out of the Netherlands in 1944 and 1945 at great cost. Then we left the Dutch in peace. It occurred to me at the cemetery, walking through all the headstones with crosses and Stars of David, that maybe we can ask the Netherlands and Europe for a favor.
Please save the world.
A hollow celebration
We Americans are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (actual independence from England didn’t come until 1783) at the low point of our history. Trump wants to throw that all away. More than eighty years after those Americans buried at Margraten died, Trump is undermining the U.S. military, supporting Putin and threatening to pull out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
He has laid waste to everything from the East Wing of the White House to political decorum to crucial alliances with global allies. With the assistance of the Congress and the Supreme Court, Donald Trump has embraced what the Founding Fathers worked so hard to prevent – an American monarchy, with him as king. “World history is progress in the consciousness of freedom,” wrote Hegel. But it’s clear now that a significant minority of the American people have succumbed to Trump’s delusional version of an America with cage fights on the White House lawn, wars started on a whim and unchecked Third World-level corruption.
The Founding Fathers are among the greatest statesmen who ever lived. But even they could never anticipate a Trump, though they did warn against tyrants and demagogues. With lessons learned from the European monarchies and their penchants for starting expensive wars, they tried to build what Jefferson called “an extended republic” where no one faction could dominate.
They failed. Influenced by staid British and European philosophers, they couldn’t foresee through the veil of history a venal, media-savvy huckster like Trump.
Now what?
Though it’s increasingly likely that the Republicans will lose the mid-terms, and criminal charges against Trump will proceed, that doesn’t mean he will ever leave office.
Well, 81 years after World War II, it might be time for Europe to save the Americans.
Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures
How would that work? I’m going to advocate some extreme measures, but that’s where we are in 2026.
• The European Union could start by supporting democratic efforts in the U.S. Is that political interference? Yes. But Trump was a big supporter of defeated authoritarian Victor Orbán, who used EU funds to undermine rule of law in Hungary.
• Ban Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s cabinet members and far-right Republican senators and congressmen from entering the EU and the United Kingdom. That would make it more difficult for Vance and others to come and support far-right politicians such as Nigel Farage and Alice Weidel.
• Continue to defy Trump on the Iran war. No planes, no ships and certainly no troops.
• Regulate American tech. This is the perfect moment to block Bezos, Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and the rest of the Trump supporters while boosting European tech companies.
• Sell off American debt. The United Kingdom is the third-largest holder of American treasuries with an estimated $900 billion. The UK and Europe selling American treasuries would force the American Federal Reserve to up interest rates, which would weaken Trump politically. A painful solution, but no one said saving the world would be painless.
While I support current European programs to poach American talent, such schemes have the potential of backfiring because a lot of those scientists and researchers will never go back. And I want to save America, not kill it.
EU leadership is notoriously cautious, and I expect them to do exactly none of these things. But … but … Europeans are doing a lot to stymie Putin.What is Trump going to do if Europe plays hardball? In his take-no-prisoners fashion, he’s already lost all his leverage. Sooner or later, he’s going to close all the U.S. bases, and that will leave Europe incredibly vulnerable to Putin.
All this is personal for me. I’ll spare you the sentiment and just say we just can’t lose this fight. Trump comes off as a clown, but I can assure you the people behind him are ruthless. They don’t intend to give up power when they can use the increasing power of the executive to suspend or overturn elections.
This is a dangerous time. The Europeans have to come through so 2026 doesn’t turn into 1938.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
