Western Europe Is Carrying Its Weight in Multiple Ways

One thing that Trump argues is that Europe does not pull its weight, including funding NATO. Do we really want to downgrade our superiority in this area? There is value in being a superpower and having "soft power" by controlling resources and ideas. 

Our military is a major part of our sense of self. Do we want Europe to truly have more power there? Maybe, in some ways, that would be a good idea. Do conservatives really want it? I doubt it.

U.S. and Germany pay the same percentage of the NATO operations budget (under 16% each), with the UK & France combined paying over 20% combined. United States military make up around 38 percent of the 3.4 million combined troops from NATO allied countries. Western Europe is not quite doing nothing.

Europe also gave more aid to Ukraine. Note that U.S. aid will often help the U.S. by involving spending that profits the U.S. If Ukraine relies on the U.S. more for weapons, who obtains the profits for them? 

Europe also hosts a lot of refugees. By the end of 2022, Europe hosted 1 in 3 refugees in the world (36 percent). This often causes difficulties since the U.S. is more of a melting pot. Western Europe is made of individual nations with more ethnic uniformity.

Europe also honors human rights and international law. Finally, Hungary has not done well in avoiding authoritarian leadership lately, but the U.S. twice voted for an incompetent Putin puppet. 

We should have some modesty. Europe will have to step in more now that Trump is in power. Again, there is some value in regional powers having a larger role in regulating their zone of interest. We can say that while respecting what they are doing already. 

The United States has a national interest in playing an important role in international relations, including the use of foreign aid. Let's just say that even if we want Europe to have more of a footprint, Trump doesn't provide the finesse required to balance things out. 

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Reports are out that Trump will hand down an executive order making English the official language. We shall see what that means. 

Multiple states have made English an official language. Nonetheless, from the very beginning, Congress has not. And, as I have written, that is fine.