Can Europe withstand four years of Trumpian assault?

In the eleven weeks between the American election in November and Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, Europe was abuzz with talk of how it might best “Trump-proof” itself. How quaint the idea now seems. In weighty reports and brow-furrowing colloquiums, officials had studiously pondered ways to ensure Making America Great Again did not mean Europe Getting Screwed In The Process. Alas, to no avail. The game-plan worked out in Paris, Berlin and Brussels had assumed that Mr Trump would reboot his old hobby horses: grousing about the continent’s trade surplus and its anaemic defence spending, perhaps throwing in gibes about the manner in which the European Union regulates big tech. What has transpired instead is a putative takeover of Greenland, American officials gangsterishly shaking down Ukraine for its mineral resources, diplomatic backslapping with Russia’s top brass while new Washington grandees publicly root for a German party harbouring Nazi-adjacent politicians. There are another 47 months of this to endure.