Normandy, France — The heroic D-Day landings in Normandy marked the beginning of the end of World War II, where thousands of the Americans who fell in the assault still rest in graves in northwestern France.
It was the sacrifice of the American and European Allied soldiers during the Normandy Invasion, and of course their great victory over the Nazis, that formed the bedrock of an alliance that has stood firm for more than 80 years.
Then, however, came President Trump’s rhetoric and the ensuing tariff war.
“Europe has been very, very bad for us,” Mr. Trump told reporters last month. “Europe has taken our leaders for a ride. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our food products. They don’t take anything…The European Union was formed for one reason. You know what that was? To rip off the United States. So, put that in your bonnet.”
Europeans have been shocked and insulted by the president’s actions in the first 100 days of his second term.
Vincent Dampt is a fourth-generation Burgundy winemaker who is proud to sell Chablis wine to the U.S. at a fair price.
“I go often to USA to visit them, the customers, make them discover my wines,” Dampt told CBS News.
But the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again tariffs have been a huge headache to his business.
“Because we work in a profession where it’s important to have something that is stable,” Dampt said.
This spring, Mr. Trump kept changing his mind on tariffs on French wine. First, it was going to be placed under what would have been a catastrophic 200% tariff. That was followed with a 20% tariff threat, and then finally, the president decided on 10%, but just until July. It’s unclear what will happen after that.
The bottom line for Dampt is that any tariff will hurt his customers and his sales.
Trumpian uncertainty hasn’t just undermined trade, it’s shaken the great North Atlantic Treaty Organization too, as amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Trump has consistently argued that NATO’s European members need to increase their defense spending.
“If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” Mr. Trump recently told reporters.
Camille Grand with the European Council on Foreign Relations says the president has a point about the transatlantic military alliance.
“On some issues, essentially, he’s right,” Grand said. “You know, the Europeans should spend more on defense, should be much more serious on defense.”
The Europeans know that, and they are spending more on everything from training to weapons. But they fear that the Trump administration may abandon them anyway.
“What is troubling is the fact that there is a doubt on the robustness of the alliance as seen from Washington,” Grand said.
Grand says that the “perception of many Europeans” is that Europe is more committed to its relationship with the U.S. than the other way around, and fear that Mr. Trump has undermined one of the greatest alliances in modern history.
Elizabeth Palmer is CBS News’ senior foreign correspondent. She is based in the CBS News London Bureau, and reports on major events across Europe and the Middle East. Palmer was previously based in Tokyo, and before that in Moscow, for CBS News.
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