Frank Herbert, author of "Dune", was the guy who wrote that:
"Your enemies make you stronger; your allies make you weaker".
Similar: Sun Tzu:"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer".
What they mean is that conflict and opposition force growth, while the comfort of alliances can lead to complacency and dependency.
The difference today is not that alliances lead to "complacency and dependency", because none of America's allies, none in Europe at least, can be counted on for any support that might make one "complacent" or "dependent".
Today it's worse than that.
They are Allies In Name Only. AINO's. Allies, but not in fact. They are "allies" in scare quotes. They make no attempt at the sort of support that might make make one complacent or dependent.
Not that this is a Trump thing. It's been a thing for a long time. As Victor Davis Hanson describes in the vid above.
Spain, for example, has been refusing to help America going back way past Trump. The rest of Europe has been leeching off America for its defence since the second world war. And being pusillanimous allies when called on.
Meantime, America's enemies have been making America stronger. Better at what it does. Better at its defence. Better at its offense. Better at being a lethal fighting force.
Better at being a counter to the depredations of China in the South China Sea.
Can China have failed to notice the brutal, pinpoint lethality of America's fighting machine? Can they fail to have noticed how much more of a practiced military it is? Can they fail to have noticed the stark contrast between America's lethality and their own failure in the last war they fought, against tiny Vietnam, in 1979, which China lost? We, in turn, have not failed to notice that the Chinese PLA Air force has paused its provocative flights over Taiwanese air space.
Is there any worse "ally" of the United States than the United Kingdom, the UK of today?? Surely not. What a shame. What an embarrassment. Say I as one with British background. To watch Starmer bend the knee to Islam and to refuse help to its oldest ally. In it's allegedly "Special Relationship".
Oh, dear, oh dear. What a shamozzle.
