Donald Trump is now in the White House. The MAGA (Make America Great Again) slogan he carried throughout his campaign could be translated as “me first.” It is a vision that contrasts terribly with what the United States has been doing for at least 70 years.
The Marshall Plan had resulted in considerable aid to Europe to facilitate and accelerate reconstruction after the war. This choice also reflected the options taken in the institutional construction of the international society at the time. The USA was then taking advantage of its major role in the resolution of the Second World War.

This asymmetry between the two regions of the world was not called into question. It could be with the return of Donald Trump to Washington, thus upsetting the European balance.
There are three sectors plus one that are frankly dependent on American research and production.

1. Defense is the first European dependency on the United States. The Americans defended Europe via NATO. As a result, the arms sector developed rapidly across the Atlantic while it remained very insufficient in Europe. And if Europe needed weapons, it obtained them from US manufacturers. France and Great Britain were exceptions. Questioning this agreement would harm Europe but would benefit American arms manufacturers since Europe will have to rearm quickly, especially if maintaining NATO is linked to a sharp increase in defense spending by each of the European countries (5% of GDP).
2. Europe is very dependent on American technology. There are the GAFAM but also semiconductors and innovation in a more general way. This was the observation of the Draghi report which pointed out the structural insufficiency of European investment resulting in a significant delay in innovation and the capacity to innovate and causing a lower increase in income per capita in Europe than in the USA.
3. Energy. This became particularly the case with the gas crisis in 2022 when the war broke out in Ukraine. American liquefied gas had been and remains a lifesaver. Europe suffers from a lack of natural resources. As a result, the price of gas is much higher in Europe, creating an incentive for industrial companies to develop across the Atlantic. This should push Europe to further develop decarbonized energy.
4. Finally, Trump’s return to the White House will profoundly change the European political balance. Italian, Hungarian and other leaders will see it as a kind of model that is not compatible with European construction.

Europe must reinvent itself because catching up will take a considerable amount of time; there is an urgent need to mobilise.