The Peril of Kicking America's Allies to the Curb

Europe prepares to be abandoned by its biggest ally. Plus, Ukraine's innovative tech.

Cartoon by David Pepper. Scroll down for the Digimentors Tech Tip from Robert S. Anthony. Want to advertise to our 15K subscribers on LinkedIn and Substack (with a 40% open rate)? Here’s our sponsorship kit. Email me: sree.sreenivasan1@gmail.com

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“FOR ME, THE ABSOLUTE PRIORITY WILL BE to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the USA step by step.” Hard to believe that was one of the first comments by the newly-elected conservative Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz. But then it’s also hard to believe that the far-right AfD party won second place. Or that an American president and his cabinet officials are choosing to publicly distance themselves from their European allies.

The coming end of “the American Century” has been heralded for years—at least since George W. Bush sent U.S. troops to Iraq. Despite the costly two decades of guerilla warfare there and in Afghanistan, the American Century somehow persisted. America remains the ultimate security guarantee for most of Europe, as it has since the end of World War II, and even more so after the expansion of liberal Europe after the Cold War.

Taken on the whole, this has been a whopping success for everyone involved. Both are richer than ever. Roughly $5 billion of commerce happens every day between the U.S. and EU, and, as of 2022, EU and U.S. firms had more than $5 trillion(!) worth of investment in each other’s markets.

This is not an accident. It results from shared values, investments in democracy, and general agreement on core laws and regulations. Military, intelligence, and security cooperation are major factors in all of this, and it’s a major reason both have supported Ukraine’s efforts to stem Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Three years of brutal warfare in Europe, nearly 7 million Ukrainian refugees, and billions and billions of dollars later, Russia controls 20% of Ukrainian territory, and Donald Trump has abruptly started “peace” talks with Vladimir Putin, and without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and without a single European representative. Or, maybe he hasn’t.

Trump and Zelensky had a public spat in which Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war, calling his counterpart a “dictator.” It was an unprecedented turn. Now, just a few days later, Ukraine is mulling an offer from the U.S. that would see some sort of as-yet-undefined aid continue in exchange for rare-Earth mineral rights. It’s impossible to know what that implies and things could change tomorrow.

Either way, this is no way to manage the relationships of the world’s most powerful country. This is no way to treat security in Europe. And, giving Putin exactly what he wants will only encourage his expansionist ways. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, it recognizes and openly supports breakaway regions in Georgia and Moldova, and there is no reason to believe that the massive losses incurred by the Russian army will deter him from other such actions.

Ukraine is a telling lesson in how Trump and his people see the presidency—there is no fidelity to what America is as a country, as an amalgam of institutions. Giving Ukraine tens of billions of dollars in aid, equipment and logistical support to fight back against Russia’s invasion for three years is rendered moot in a matter of minutes. This is not America, this is Trump. This is Trump essentially extorting Ukraine by offering Putin what we wants.

The U.S.-Europe relationship matters to Americans from all walks of life. In many ways, it’s quite literally a pocketbook, kitchen-table issue, whether we admit it or not. If America can’t see past its nose as it deals with a complicated, interconnected world, we will all pay the price. In this case, our European friends and allies may pay dearly under the shadow of the Russian army’s increasing proximity. We have done a terrible job of explaining America’s role in the world for the past 40 years, and Trump is leveraging that lack of knowledge in pursuit of… whatever it is he is in pursuit of.

Americans are still on board with supporting Ukraine, but it’s not hard to see where support is weakest:

These numbers do not provide enough cover for Republicans to turn against Trump on Ukraine and Russia. Until that pushback happens—and it is starting to happen—when these people tell you who they are and what they want to do, believe them.

Strange as it is for me to say it, JD Vance’s full speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference is worth watching. This administration is taking the posture of the classic online “Debate Me Guy” and applying it to global trade and security. It’s meant to be chest-beating, but it signals nothing short of grievance-addled America’s retreat from the world for no other reason than the MAGA movement thinks voices of the right are somehow censored or marginalized.

Here’s the whole thing:

This part really got me:

I’ve heard a lot already in my conversations, and I’ve had many, many great conversations with many people gathered here in this room. I’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from, and of course that’s important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe, is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for. What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important?

I believe deeply that there is no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people. Europe faces many challenges. But the crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making. If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. Nor for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump. You need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming years.

More than half of the speech is centered on these poor, beat-down conservative voices flailing in the desert, held down by a liberal media and tech cabal bent on silencing then. It’s a familiar trope, but it’s not based on reality. The right dominates cable news ratings—from Deadline:

Fox News topped primetime in 2024, averaging 2.38 million viewers, up 30% from a year earlier. MSNBC averaged 1.22 million, up 1%, and CNN posted 685,000, up 18%. In the 25-54 news demo, Fox News was up 40% to an average of 294,000, followed by CNN with 147,000 up 17%, and MSNBC with 133,000 up 9%.

Since the election, Fox News said it has drawn 72% of the primetime cable news audience, with MSNBC averaging 576,000 viewers, down 57% from the period of 2024 up to Election Day, and CNN averaging 378,000, down 49%.

The largest social media profiles, podcasts, etc. are full of right-wing voices. As easy as it is to debunk all of this, right-wing populism (which we can see now is not remotely populist) is thriving around the world, and this version of the MAGA movement is taking its cues from a NATO and EU ally: Hungary.

In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s rise to dictator-lite is considered the playbook for the entire Project 2025 project being unleashed by Musk and Trump right now. This AP piece by Justin Spike and Nicholas Riccardi is a very digestible explainer on how Orban came to wield so much power in Hungary.

From the piece:

After becoming prime minister in 1998, [Victor] Orbán suffered an unexpected electoral defeat four years later. He then swore he “would never lose again” and began planning the political transformation of Hungary, said Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton professor who worked at Hungary’s Constitutional Court in the 1990s.

While he was out of power, Orbán and his allies created a legal framework to consolidate authority. It was swiftly implemented after Orbán’s Fidesz party swept to victory with a two-thirds majority in 2010.

This all sounds almost too familiar. There’s so much more:

Orbán used state power to crush rivals, remake the judiciary and game elections to make it much harder to oust his party. He has cracked down on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, the media and civic organizations.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference, which just happened in D.C., has a Hungarian arm that’s held a Budapest version of CPAC for three years running. Here are some highlights from the 2024 event:

The rhetoric on display at CPAC Hungary – a branch of the decades-running political confab in the US – showed that the American right is increasingly onboard with that idea. Conservatives from around the US, Europe and beyond traveled to Budapest for the two-day event, which was organized by a Hungarian government-funded think tank.

The meetings and speeches took place at a conference center inside a sprawling park on the west bank of the Danube River. The venue featured posters with English slogans that would have been right at home at a Trump rally, like “Let’s drain the swamp!” and “We win, they lose.” At least one attendee wore a shirt emblazoned with Trump and Orbán’s faces that declared the two leaders “saviors of the world.”

I think a lot of Americans fail to appreciate the rise of the populist right as a political force in Europe. German voters just gave the far right AfD party a newfound legitimacy, and, in France, Italy, Austria, Slovakia… and so on… the far right is either in outright control, or is at least powerful enough politically to have a significant impact on policy.

There is a playbook at work here, and it’s happening right under our noses. It’s happening within the European Union. What’s worse, it’s effective. Read this piece from 2021 by Ishaan Tharoor, and replace every mention of Orbán with “Musk” or “Trump.” You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a piece of reporting from the last week or two.

I do not want to discount the more general debate about the best and worst of the last century of “the American Century”—that debate is very important. Nowadays, simply having a debate, in public, about America’s role in the world signals some sort of freedom of speech.

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TECH TIP | Ukraine’s Innovative Tech Shines Even Under Dark Cloud of War

By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.

Even though the word “International” was removed from in front of “CES” some years back, it remains a very international technology showcase, with many languages spoken across its multiple Las Vegas venues. While CES is important to global corporations, it also plays a key role in unearthing innovative products from small companies and lone inventors in unexpected corners of the world.

Even as Ukraine suffers from the ravages of its war with Russia, its innovative spirit presses on as could be seen in the exhibitors at the small, yet well-attended Ukraine pavilion in the Eureka Park zone for startups at CES 2025.

Yaro Tsyhanenko, who moved to the US to escape the violence in Ukraine, needed a new plan and found one by settling down for a cup of coffee. He realized that there were inefficiencies in how fast coffee shops could get an order to one customer and get ready to serve the next one. “I was sitting in different stores with my stopwatch,” he said.

The net result of his brainstorming and prototyping is the Pickpad smart order pickup system, which uses smart pads with embedded sensors that can detect when orders placed on top of them are complete and ready for the customer, whose name it then displays in illuminated letters. Multiple smart pads can be placed on shelves within reach of customers and easily managed from behind the counter, he said.

As orders come in, they’re sent to a printer or kitchen display system (KDS) which displays the number of the appropriate smart pad. The pad, which uses machine learning to understand what’s placed on top of it, won’t flash the customer’s name until it senses the order is complete and will show a red light if it detects a problem, like two cups of coffee where there should be one or a missing item.

The beauty of the Pickpad system, said Tsyhanenko, is that it integrates with existing point-of-sale systems, right down to ticking off orders as complete as soon as customers lift them from the smart pads.

He said a number of coffee shops had already shown interest in the system, including Soloway Coffee in Chicago, which is testing it. Pickpad won a 2025 CES Innovation Award.

Unfortunately, a pressing need in Ukraine at the moment is for prosthetic limbs as countless residents and soldiers recover from horrible injuries inflicted by the war. SYLA has developed a bionic prosthetic knee which uses a small motor plus artificial intelligence to help users walk or run with a natural stride, said CEO and co-founder Mykola Lozinskyi.

He said the motorized unit contains sensors and hydraulics which make adjustments as the user walks so he can stride more naturally. Since it’s a smart wirelessly connected device, it can give feedback to users and their healthcare providers on rehabilitation progress and on any problem areas, he said.

Each knee supports loads of up to 150 kg. (331 lbs.) and has a battery designed to last 24 hours or 5,000 steps per charge, according to SYLA. Lozinskyi noted that while the unit is designed to be light, stable, durable and easy on the eyes, the design will allow it to be sold for far less than conventional units which force the user to walk with a hitch and can cost up to $50,000.

According to SYLA (the letters represent the last names of the four founders), the company is still raising capital and fine-tuning the bionic knee and hopes to start production later this year and start sales in 2026.

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