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Melanie, Chris, and Zack discuss the steps that European countries can and should take to prepare for possible U.S. retrenchment from the continent. Can NATO survive a second Trump administration? Or should we be equally concerned about a second Biden administration for transatlantic relations? Grievances for Justin Trudeau and Canada’s meager defense budgets, to those who kept President Biden’s health problems a secret, and to the Pentagon for acquiescing to the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile’s rising costs. Attas to the Secret Service agents who risked their lives to shield former President Trump, to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for his handling of the tragic death of a fellow Pennsylvanian during the assassination attempt on President Trump, and to those members of Congress starting to ask hard questions about the F-35.

Episode Reading

• Arancha González Laya, Camille Grand, Katarzyna Pisarska, Nathalie Tocci, and Guntram Wolff, “Trump-Proofing Europe: How the Continent Can Prepare for American Abandonment,” Foreign Affairs, February 2, 2024.
• Emma Ashford (with MacKenna Rawlins), “American Roulette: Scenarios for US Retrenchment and the Future of European Defense,” Stimson Center, July 8, 2024.
• Tara Copp, “New Sentinel nuclear weapons program is 81% over budget. But Pentagon says it must go forward reported,” Associated Press, July 9, 2024.
• Brad Dress, “Congress inches toward reining in struggling F-35 program,” The Hill, July 7, 2024.
• Event, “Delivering on a Shared Vision with America’s Indo-Pacific Allies and Partners,” American Enterprise Institute.
• Hearing, “The Great Firewall and the CCP’s Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State,” The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, YouTube.
• Camille Grand, Defending Europe with Less America, European Council on Foreign Relations, July 3, 2024.
• Helen Warrell and John Paul Rathbone, UK Military Unprepared for Conflict “At Any Scale,” Warns Ex-Defence Official, Financial Times, July 1, 2024.
• Alexander B. Gray, Canada’s Defense Failures Put the Western Hemisphere at Risk, The National Interest, July 10, 2024.
• Anja Karadeglija, Canada to Send around 2,000 Decommissioned CRV7 Rocket Motors to Ukraine, The Globe and Mail, June 13, 2024.
• Justin Trudeau, X, July 8, 2024.
• James Lynch, X post of Josh Shapiro press gaggle, July 14, 2024.