A leading commentator has issued a stark warning that Europe must immediately cut all ties with the United States, as the Trump administration's imperial ambitions, including the potential annexation of Greenland, become an urgent reality.
The Greenland Flashpoint and a New American Empire
The crisis crystallised around a high-stakes visit on 28 March 2025, when US Vice President JD Vance and the Second Lady, Usha Vance, toured the Pituffik space base in Greenland. The trip, captured in photographs by Jim Watson of AFP/Getty Images, was a potent symbol of Washington's intensifying focus on the strategically vital Danish territory. This comes after former President Donald Trump declared the US would seize Greenland "one way or the other," a threat his inner circle is no longer disguising.
Alexander Hurst, writing for Guardian Europe from Paris, argues that Europe's leaders are facing a moment of truth. As Danish and Greenlandic ministers prepared for talks with Vance in the White House, the fundamental question was whether Europe would finally choose itself over its transatlantic ally. The US, Hurst contends, has moved beyond abandoning allies to a posture of "active and hostile predation by force."
The MAGA Grand Design and Europe's Stark Choice
The vision driving this aggression, Hurst explains, is a long-held MAGA fantasy of a new American empire. During the 2024 election, maps inspired by a 1930s concept for a "Technate of America" circulated online. This empire would stretch from Greenland through Canada, Mexico, and into South America, embodying a revived Monroe Doctrine with brutal clarity. The ideology is bolstered by white supremacist rhetoric and techno-nihilists eager to plunder Greenland's resources.
Faced with this, Europe's path to preserving democracy is singular: build a "protective moat of federalism." If the US attacks Denmark by invading Greenland, Europe would be forced to act. Hurst outlines a necessary response: seizing US military bases from Germany to Spain, imposing sweeping sanctions on the US economy and officials, and accelerating digital independence by banning major US tech platforms and replacing dollar-dominated payment systems.
A Rupture for Survival and Renewal
Critically, Hurst believes Europe must force this rupture even if an attack does not immediately occur. Survival as a free continent in an imperial world demands decisive action now. This means ordering the US to vacate its European bases, breaking free from the dominance of US tech billionaires, robustly funding public media as a defence, and potentially expanding programmes like Erasmus into a European civil service corps.
The window for choice is closing. Trump, Vance, and strategist Steve Bannon are openly working to boost far-right, anti-EU parties across the continent, aiming—in alignment with Vladimir Putin—to detonate the union from within. By boldly detaching now, Europe could not only secure its own future but also deliver a "resuscitative shock" to America's ailing democracy. The cost of a break is high, but the cost of submission—a series of crises dictated by Washington—will be higher. For everyone's sake, Europe must cut the cord before it is dragged into the storm.
