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Comment by stevesimmons | Hacker News Reader

Speaking as a European, current foreign policy is not "reducing trust in America as a reliable and stable partner". It has already reduced trust to rock bottom.

It's hard to see how much worse it could get, short of outright invasion or allying with Russia.

Just this week, amongst other news:

* America's useless adventures in Iran have used up so many Patriot missiles there aren't any left to defend Kyiv against Russian missiles, while Iran is still firmly in control of the Straits of Hormuz.

* Meddling in Greenland went up a notch with landing equipment to start oil drilling.

* State Department funding MAGA-oriented "free speech" disinformation campaigns in the UK.

* The revival of Trump's tariffs under the hypocritical guise of guarding against slave labour. Especially when the US prison system is such a large domestic source of slave labour.

Zero trust left here. Zero desire to visit the US ever again.

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I feel it is hard to grasp for an American how much perception of US shifted in eu. This is just anedoctal of course, but a famous Italian singer famous for having written a song about American and sexual liberation decades ago, wrote an updated version. The former is "America", the latter is "America INC." You can guess which one depicts America in a bad light.

I wouldn't have expected a famous singer to make such a song, given that America was always portrayed in italian pop music with a positive image, and negative views were relegated to mostly political groups or singers with political themes

Why do you think Americans don't grasp it? There are really two groups here:

- MAGA who doesn't care what Europe thinks - not-MAGA who are just as shocked and disappointed as everyone else on the planet

Simply put, I think Americans don't grasp it because even for us Europeans it is sometimes surprising how repentine and fast the shift has been in the regular Joe's brain - I'm not saying that Americans are stupid bla bla thing -, I'm saying that it is normal not be as up to date with some phenomena as people living where that phenomena happens.

Also, at least the Italian government is still dancing the tip tap regarding a position on America, not taking any definitive stance or doing anything significantly different than before, which is a big rift wrt what people want. Only exception for defense expenses

I don't think the first group understands how important Europe is to America's status as superpower, while the second group operates under the delusion that the world will go back to business as usual after the next presidential election.

Plenty of us in the second group don't think the world will go back to business as usual.

I'm sorry, friend.

You think there's gonna be a next one? He's installed his own people in all the right places, and got his own Praetorian guard.

Only the elderly who are blind to the decline and can’t even picture a world order outside other than Pax Americana believe we will go back to business as usual. The rest of us realize it will take decades of stability to gain a semblance of the trust we used to be granted. And in the mean time the rest of the world will forge ties that don’t include us. We will be weakened on the world stage compared to status quo prior to trump for the rest of my life I’m sure.

There is a lot of that with the population but I don't see it at the leadership level yet. The top politicians are all still desperate to go back to the good old days of euro-atlanticism (and all the cushy positions it gets their friends & family), there's also the problem of all of their capital happily sitting and growing in fortune 500 companies.

> It's hard to see how much worse it could get, short of outright invasion or allying with Russia.

Why would the US ally with Russia, who is a Chinese and Iranian ally?

That's just uncritical thinking.

The United States is the single largest bilateral provider of direct military equipment, intelligence, and defense funding to Ukraine (a European country) against Russia.

> Why would the US ally with Russia, who is a Chinese and Iranian ally?

I don’t think the comment above you is suggesting that is a possibility, but rather saying “things are so bad that the only imaginable way to get worse would be <outlandish unimaginable scenario>”. In other words, it seems to be hyperbole.

Perhaps, though my reading between the lines is that they think trust is so low because the US won't help defend Europe and might invade Europe, even though, despite rhetoric, all actions point to the opposite happening.

It is, as the USA has a large population. We can be more nuanced.

By absolute dollars, single country: US > EU institutions > Germany > UK

By absolute dollars, bloc vs. bloc: EU/Europe combined (~$237bn+) now exceeds the US (~$130bn), especially after 2025

By per-capita/GDP burden: tiny front-line states (Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway) far outstrip both the US and the larger Western European economies — the US actually ranks closer to the bottom of the pack on a relative-effort basis, behind Germany, the UK, and virtually all Nordic/Baltic states

Between February 2022 and January 2025, average expenditure per European resident stood at $394; by April 2026 that figure had risen to $618, driven by the total spending by European NATO countries on Ukraine exceeding $237 billion, including $96 billion contributed just since January 2025.

Average European (across NATO's European members) $618 per person (2022-2026)

United States (my estimate: ~$130bn total ÷ ~340m population)≈ $384 per person

That is an indisputably rough list, and I'm sorry that's your conclusion.

It's tough being here and feeling powerless to stop it. Beyond voting, campaign donations, judicious choice of employment, etc.

Anyhow, you're welcome back should you change your mind. In my book, anyway.

> feeling powerless to stop it

You guys are the meekest sheep to ever been led astray by a howling, undisguised wolf.

What more does this regime have to do to warrant massive, historic, disruptive, non-peaceful protests in the USA?

Have you seen protests in France? Bringing the country to a halt is the least you have to do in order for us to ever have faith in the USA again.

Until then, nothing any US citizen can say online will do anything to restore trust. If you're not rioting, you're complicit. It's as simple as that.

I admit I haven't followed the French protests as closely as I should have. Do they shoot protestors in the face with teargas canisters there too? Maybe they do. Do those protestors face the real possibility of medical bankruptcy if they need extensive care? Does France enforce laws that protect striking workers?

To answer my own question: Yes, police in France also under scrutiny: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/france-once-again-critici...

> Do those protestors face the real possibility of medical bankruptcy if they need extensive care?

No. But wouldn't that be MORE reason to fight for a different future?

Where do you live? Does everyone have an AR-15 in their closet? You do not seem to grasp the reality of our situation.

The problem with the US is not the regime, it's the people. We elected Trump a second time with ~50% of the vote after seeing four years of his complete buffoonery. His approval rating is still around 40%. If he were somehow to run again in 2028 (never mind it being unconstitutional), there's a pretty solid chance he'd win. His party still backs him 100%, and nobody has any idea whether they'll maintain control of Congress after the midterms, because they still have enough support to plausibly keep their majority.

It's not about being too meek to fix things. It's about half the country wanting what's happening.

If you don’t want to fight for the things you care about, you don’t deserve them. Giving up before even trying anything is completely absurd to me.

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