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Within weeks of his inauguration, President Donald Trump had already wrought a strategic revolution in U.S. foreign policy. Russia, formerly an antagonist, has been promoted to preferred partner. In its place, Team Trump has identified a new enemy. With this enemy there can be no coexistence, no cooperation. It must be humbled and divided, not merely defeated but utterly overthrown. This enemy is the European Union.

The drama of this reversal cannot be overstated. George W. Bush observed in 2003, “Since the end of World War II, the United States has strongly supported European unity as the best path to European peace and prosperity.” That was a precisely accurate statement. From Truman through Obama, America’s European policy has been strikingly consistent: The United States has supported a democratic and united Europe joined to Canada and the United States by nato. “We recognize we will benefit more from a strong and equal partner than from a weak one.” Those words happen to have been pronounced by Bill Clinton. They could as easily have appeared in a speech by any of his predecessors or successors—until now.

Trump has more than once described nato as “obsolete.” During his campaign, he expressed uncertainty about whether, as president, he would honor America’s nato obligations to small countries threatened by Russia. He cheered Britain’s exit from the European Union. Trump and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, have made common cause with populist nationalists working to end the European Union outright. Trump reportedly received Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party, at the White House; when he ran Breitbart.com, Bannon promoted the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and France’s Marine Le Pen. Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, claims to have been granted a call with President-elect Trump in November (two months before the president of France spoke to Trump).

Meanwhile, Trump has offered sharp personal comments on Chancellor Angela Merkel. One of his top advisers has called for Germany to flout the EU and negotiate bilaterally with the U.S. so as to reduce German trade surpluses. In a meeting with Merkel, Trump also called for direct negotiations, and suggested that Germany had outmaneuvered the U.S. On bad days, the U.S.–German relationship looks more strained than at any time since the end of the Cold War, including during the Iraq War. The Trump administration seems determined only to widen the breach.

G. K. Chesterton advised that one should never tear something down until one knows why it was built in the first place. So let’s review why our parents and grandparents constructed what Trump and his team now seem so set on destroying.

Their first concern was the internal peace of Europe.