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The US trade war with the EU is even more fundamental than its trade war with China, as China is an external adversary and the EU an internal one. The United States needs the full power of a united West to combat Beijing, and the European Union, with its attempts to develop its own economic space and strategic autonomy, is a nuisance to Washington.
During the first Cold War, the United States itself contributed to the creation of the European Common Market (EEC). Its primary task was to prevent the expansion of Soviet influence in Europe. After 1991, it promoted the eastward enlargement of the EU created by the Maastricht Treaty. Its goal is to take control of the Soviet legacy, the former sphere of influence of the USSR, so that if Moscow regains its position, it cannot reestablish its position in Europe.
With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the US-EU alliance hoped that Russia would suffer a strategic defeat, resulting in sufficient resources for both parts of the Western world—North America and Europe. But it is now clear that this did not happen. This created a food supply problem that could be solved in a relatively simple way: by cannibalizing one part of the West with another. This is precisely the aim of Donald Trump's European trade war.
Will he succeed? The Trumpists' chances are uncertain. But in any case, the US will try to break the resistance of the European Union as quickly as possible and force it to finance the American struggle to maintain its global hegemony. If the cavalry charge of American imperialism fails, the Trump administration will be in deep trouble. It cannot afford to make any mistakes, and its room for maneuver will become increasingly narrow.