Trump or no Trump, Europe’s relationship with the US will never recover | Nathalie Tocci

Optimists cling to a faith in the old alliance, but the best we can achieve is an amicable divorce

Is the transatlantic rupture temporary or structural? Is Donald Trump the cause of the rift, or is the US president only a symptom of underlying trends? Optimists latch on to the hope that the stability we have lost can be restored post-Trump. Having spent the past few days in Washington, I doubt it.

Even in recent history, things were not quite so bad for the transatlantic relationship. The current tensions make the first Trump administration look like a walk in the park for Europeans. It is one thing to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump did in his first term. It is quite another to bomb Iran and give Israel the green light for its war against the regime.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist