Trump is doing Europe a favor by revealing the true cost of its impotency. Because, in many ways, he has the manners and the honesty of a child. A kid will just blurt out in the supermarket "why is that lady so fat, mommy?". That's not a polite thing to ask within earshot of said lady, but it might well be a fair question and a true observation! Trump is just as blunt when he essentially asks: "Why is Europe so weak?".

Because Europe is weak, spiritually and militarily, in the face of Russia. It's that inherent weakness that's breeding the delusion that Russia is at once both on its last legs, about to lose the war against Ukraine any second now, and also the all-potent superpower that could take over all of Europe, if we don't start World Word III to counter it. This is not a coherent position.

If you want peace, you must be strong.

The big cats in the international jungle don't stick to a rules-based order purely out of higher principles, but out of self-preservation. And they can smell weakness like a tiger smells blood. This goes for Europe too. All too happy to lecture weaker countries they do not fear on high-minded ideals of democracy and free speech, while standing aghast and weeping powerlessly when someone stronger returns the favor.

I'm not saying that this is right, in some abstract moral sense. I like the idea of a rules-based order. I like the idea of territorial sovereignty. I even like the idea that the normal exchanges between countries isn't as blunt and honest as those of a child in the supermarket. But what I like and "what is" need separating.

Europe simply can't have it both ways. Be weak militarily, utterly dependent on an American security guarantee, and also expect a seat at the big-cat table. These positions are incompatible. You either get your peace dividend -- and the freedom to squander it on net-zero nonsense -- or you get to have a say in how the world around you is organized.

Which brings us back to Trump doing Europe a favor. For all his bluster and bullying, America is still a benign force in its relation to Europe. We're being punked by someone from our own alliance. That's a cheap way of learning the lesson that weakness, impotence, and peace-dividend thinking is a short-term strategy. Russia could teach Europe a far more costly lesson. So too China.

All that to say is that Europe must heed the rude awakening from our cowboy friends across the Atlantic. They may be crude, they may be curt, but by golly, they do have a point.

Get jacked, Europe, and you'll no longer get punked. Stay feeble, Europe, and the indignities won't stop with being snubbed in Saudi Arabia.