German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz says, before an audience of schoolchildren, that Iran has humiliated the US. Donald Trump announces the withdrawal of 5000 of its troops from his country. Meanwhile, Minister Donald​Tusk, Prime Minister of the most loyal of East European states loyal to the US and the Atlantic alliance, told the Financial Times that Europe's "biggest, most important question is if the United States is ready to be as loyal as it is described in our (NATO) treaties.

The question is if NATO is still an organisation ready, politically and logistically, to react - for example, against Russia if they try to​attack." The trouble is not recent but in the first year and a half of Donald Trump’s second administration these strains now seem to be building up to breaking point. The two sides of the Atlantic find themselves on opposit ...