America First: allies freeload on US protection and must pay / rebalance

This position holds that, under America First, US allies have freeloaded on American protection and must now pay their share or accept a rebalanced relationship. Its advocates apply the reasoning to defence spending, trade and regulation alike: Europe should carry more of its own security, US tariffs are justified, and EU rules on technology firms are overreach.

The position is voiced by US actors and outlets. It appears in several transatlantic disputes: strategic tensions between Europe and the US, trade disputes and tariffs, defence burden-sharing and US security guarantees, tech regulation and digital sovereignty, and European strategic autonomy, which it calls an illusion. It also appears in the US-Canada rupture, where it holds that US leverage is justified.

Other positions answer that the West's internal quarrels expose hypocrisy, disunity and decline, and that the US is an unreliable ally that extracts more than it delivers. Recent events fit the pattern its advocates describe: tariff threats against the EU over a Canada plan and over fines on US tech companies, and a review of US troops in Europe alongside criticism of allied defence spending. A pledge to lift tariffs on Irish whiskey shows the same leverage used as a reward.