Nowhere is that truer than in defence. Europe relies for its defence on the US, but rather than generating any gratitude, this seems to give EU leaders an endless sense of superiority. They denounce American militarism, critique the US social spending model and moan about its “unilateral” decision-making, all while free-riding on its $730 billion defence budget.

Of course, those European countries for whom defence really means something behave differently. The Baltic States, with an eye on Russia, all meet their Nato spending obligations and support Donald Trump when he demands that others do so. This is because Nato troops are deployed on Baltic soil and, according to Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics, they have made his country feel safer from invasion than it did five years ago.

Eastern European states therefore take the US more seriously than Brussels. When a US government changes, they flood Washington DC with officials on the off-chance of collaring some new member of the administration. And when the US complains about a Chinese-Eastern bloc infrastructure investment forum, known as “16+1”, undermining the Western alliance, a country like Poland listens, unlike when Brussels says the same thing.

Brussels might think that regulating the world’s largest single market makes it a superpower. Instead, the EU struggles to enforce even basic political standards among its members. Trade is one thing, but there is simply no substitute for feeling safe.

Germany, however, clings to pacifism, hoping that Mr Trump’s demand for Berlin to pay its way is a temporary aberration. Angela Merkel is moving defence spending “in the direction of” Nato targets and says Germany’s deployment of troops to join France in Mali was “a gigantic step”. A “gigantic step” for Germany, though, is a pigeon step for Europe.

Nor will that change while much of the continent persists in thinking that defence is irrelevant or something that external benefactors are obligated to supply. In the Brexit negotiations, EU states have threatened us, called Gibraltar a “colony”, eyed our fishing grounds and our financial industry, yet somehow expect UK voters to support the unconditional deployment of our troops on Europe’s borders.