This letter from US senators threatening sanctions on a port in Merkel’s home district (h/t @OlafGersemann) if Nord Stream 2 goes ahead has triggered another round dire warnings from the German kommentariat on long-term damage such tactics will do to trust in US (Short thread)1/5

What’s interesting is that few German politicians or journalists look at the situation through the other end of the telescope, i.e. at the damage Germany’s relentless pursuit of the project has already done to trust in Germany in US policy circles and among other NATO allies.2/5

Germans seem to think that the US has more to lose from the collapse of the transatlantic relationship than Germany itself. Consider the spectacle over the troop withdrawal, where you have German politicians warning the US that it’s making a grave strategic blunder...3/5

as if it were American security that will be impacted. This view is widely shared by the German public, half of whom welcomes the withdrawal. 4/5

One can only conclude that Germany has become so blinded by its hatred of Trump that strategic rationale has gone out the window. The question is whether Berlin would shift under Biden, who might be more polite, but on substance probably not much different. 5/5