The bet would be that in the long run (talking 5-10 years down the road after the EU has built their defense), the EU would still be more likely to ally with the US then China.

The current administration perhaps thinks that alienating them in the short run is the only way to get them to actually get serious about building military.

In the EU, right-wing parties continue to grow. AfD, National Front, and others have all recently scored their highest levels of support. It is not impossible to imagine that they will eventually cross the threshold to actually governing, and at that point, the EU and Trump will be much more aligned.

That's what Trump is betting on, and I'm not sure he will lose (as much as I would like him to lose).

> In the EU, right-wing parties continue to grow. AfD, National Front, and others have all recently scored their highest levels of support. It is not impossible to imagine that they will eventually cross the threshold to actually governing, and at that point, the EU and Trump will be much more aligned.

Thing about nationalist parties, the defining characteristic, is they're interested in their own nation first, not spreading nationalism as a global ideology.

If all of Europe elected nationalist parties, none of them are going to be aligned with the USA — nor, for that matter, each other — except by coincidence, and then on small and limited domains.