On VE Day, is Europe alone once again?

Today Europe commemorates the 80th anniversary of what is known as Victory in Europe (VE Day): the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War.

It was so named to "reflect the fact that US and British troops fought on in the Pacific" until the defeat of Japan in August 1945, said The Telegraph.

But Donald Trump has announced that the US would "strip any mention of Europe" from its celebration. The president said VE Day would be known in the US as "Victory Day for World War Two" and "appeared to downplay the role of European forces in defeating Nazism".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

His second presidency has been marked by his undermining of Nato, the alliance formed to provide security in the aftermath of the war, as well as his administration's denigration of European allies and his punitive trade tariffs on the EU. Continent-wide rearmament and bolstering of defence spending suggest Europe fears a future without the protection of its once strongest ally. As European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said last month: "The West no longer exists."

What did the commentators say?

There was a "moving ceremony" in Normandy last year to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, said Roger Cohen in The New York Times. It was a "celebration of the ironclad alliance" between Europe and the US, and their "shared resolve" to defend Ukraine. I never imagined "so much so dear to so many could unravel so fast".

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been "absolved of responsibility for the war he started" by the US president – a "perennial coddler of autocrats". Trump has "taken a wrecking ball to the postwar order".

The rhetoric from Washington is becoming "increasingly feisty", said The Associated Press. Europeans "fear the break-up of the transatlantic bonds that were a core of global politics for almost a century".

A YouGov poll in March suggested that most Western Europeans view Trump as a threat to peace and security in Europe. "The naive belief that the Americans will, by definition, always be an ally – once and for all, that is gone," said Hendrik Vos, European studies professor at Ghent University.

Naive is right, said Katya Adler, Europe editor of the BBC. True, the US gave Europe "post-war security guarantees", but the founding of Nato wasn't "American altruism"; it was "a marriage of convenience". The US was worried about the spread of communism. By "swooping in" to help Europe, it gained "a geostrategic foothold on the Soviet Union's doorstep". Now, it no longer sees Russia as a threat.

Plus, not all of Europe benefited from that marriage. Unlike Western Europe, much of Central and Eastern Europe emerged from Nazi occupation only to "end up under communist regimes – whether they liked it or not".

And despite "countless" analyses painting Trump as "the slayer-in-chief of decades-old common values", the US withdrawal from Europe long predates him. It has viewed China as "strategic threat number one" for some time, concentrating foreign policy on Asia during the two previous administrations.

Despite "all the European hand wringing", there is also recognition that, 80 years after the original VE Day, it is "high time" it takes responsibility for its own defence. And in that, some see "potential".

What next?

Denzil Davidson, a former Foreign Office and No. 10 adviser, told Politico that the lack of support from Trump could offer "a serious opportunity" for Britain to step up in Europe, suggesting greater alignment.

Overall, Europe is "not waiting" for Trump's "next swerve", said Cohen in The New York Times. Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and France's President Emmanuel Macron are seeking independence from Washington. The Franco-German alliance has "always been the engine" of the EU. "If it kicks into overdrive, the rearmament of Europe, as a military power but also as a guardian of the values for which America fought in World War II, seems plausible over the medium term."

And despite the "current mood of pessimism", it is important to remember that the hopes on 8 May 1945 for a better world have "largely been fulfilled", said The Times. The allied forces "saved the free world from a savage tyranny". "Neither the sacrifices of the dead nor the optimism of the survivors were in vain."