Speaking in Munich last week, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, offered a taste of how the home of fine wines, classical architecture and welfare cheques faces humiliation, when he ridiculed Europe as decadent and undemocratic.

At the end of the Cold War, President George H.W. Bush managed the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe — sometimes overruling regional leaders in the wider interests of the West and their own security. There’s no sign that Trump feels any such affinity for Europe or its future.

President Donald Trump, addressing a bipartisan group of governors at the White House, said Friday that he’s had “very good talks” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and “not such good talks with Ukraine” about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.