BRUSSELS — European leaders have long understood that President Trump is an unreliable ally, subject to loud tantrums, abrupt shifts and sudden whims. They have worried about his ambivalence toward NATO, resented his personal attacks and bristled at his use of trade policy and economic sanctions to restrict their companies and markets. But Mr. Trump’s recent actions in Syria and Ukraine may change that. The more optimistic now argue Mr. Trump’s betrayals in those conflicts are of a different category of seriousness, and may accelerate what has been a slowly building process of European integration and peeling away from the United States. But there is agreement that Mr. Trump has destabilized Europe’s near neighborhood in a major, even fundamental, way that requires a unified response, if only Europeans can come together.

Source: International New York Times October 24, 2019 06:56 UTC