They also dumped Microsoft’ s SharePoint file-sharing system, going with open source Nextcloud.
We’ re no longer seen as a reliable partner: many of our former allies now view us as a potential enemy.
Denmark’ s government, Swiss authorities, Austria, and other European countries are exploring or implementing similar moves. The EU’ s senior official for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, said that Europe’ s dependence on American technology“ can be weaponized against us.” As ABC News reported:
“ A decisive moment came last year when the Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court’ s top prosecutor after the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ally of President Donald Trump.
“ The sanctions led Microsoft to cancel [ International Criminal Court’ s prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad ] Khan’ s ICC email, a move that was first reported by The Associated Press and sparked fears of a‘ kill switch’ that Big Tech companies can use to turn off service at will.”
It’ s the same reason Canada is reconsidering purchasing F-35s from America, which would be another major economic and strategic blow to us. Under a leader as corrupt, mentally ill, and erratic as Trump, few countries are willing to have their essential tech or defense infrastructure vulnerable to his whims and tantrums. Even more shocking, the National Security Desk reports:“ In a stunning shift announced today, NATO stripped the United States of command of all three of its operationallevel Joint Force Commands— the fourstar headquarters responsible for leading the Alliance in crisis and war.
“ For the first time since NATO’ s founding, every major operational command will now be led by European officers. The United Kingdom will assume command of JFC Norfolk, Italy will take over JFC Naples, and Germany and Poland will rotate leadership of JFC Brunssum. SACEUR remains American for now, but only symbolically; today’ s tectonic move makes a future European SACEUR a matter of timing, not theory.”
This isn’ t about Europeans“ hating America” any more than than No Kings protestors calling out Trump’ s fascist actions means they despise our country.
Quite simply, European leaders— like millions of Americans— are looking at Donald Trump’ s naked embrace of Vladimir Putin, his open contempt for democracy, and his casual threats against NATO allies and concluding that no critical tech or defense system should ever again depend on the whims of this narcissistic wannabe American strongman. Speaking of wannabe strongmen, ABC News added:“ Billionaire Elon Musk is also a factor. Officials worry about relying on his Starlink satellite internet system...” Analysts now explicitly warn that Trump’ s and his toadies’ hostility to the EU and his willingness to weaponize sanctions and economic tools have made Silicon Valley firms look more like extensions of an unpredictable strongman who ignores the law, rather than the neutral digital providers they’ ve historically positioned themselves as.
After all, if you’ re a European defense or interior minister, you have to ask yourself: what happens to our communications and data if Trump wakes up pissed off at us one morning because we didn’ t leap high enough when he yelled“ Jump!”
The Trial Lawyer 55