American Reacts to Why Europe is WAY More Powerful Than You Think

What's going on everyone? Uh, I'm just a typical average American here today to react and learn about why Europe is way more powerful than we think. So, to be honest, a lot of Americans really believe that the United States is the greatest, most powerful place in the world. And there's no way to dispute that. And there's probably not a lot you could say to to change their mind about that. So today I really want to check out this video by Stefan Woodford that he titled Europe is way more powerful than you think. Because I believe that it's very important for Americans, for us to to look at stuff like this and and have these discussions and expand our our viewpoints cuz a lot of Americans are really sort of trapped in our uh US bubble here where we don't hear outside opinions like this. So, I want to take a look at this video and uh I don't know. I'm kind of curious to see if this can uh change the way that I think about all this. So, let's take a look.

>> So, there's a narrative going around mega circles right now. You've probably seen it. They look at military spending. The US spends $997 [laughter] billion on defense while Europe spends $454 billion. And they conclude that Europe is helpless, that Europe needs America, that Trump can do whatever he wants, and that [groaning]

>> Yeah. Yeah. I [snorts] mean, yeah, this is this is true. There are a lot of Americans who have this mindset. I mean, it is factually true that the United States spends an ungodly amount of our money on our military. Um, and on one hand, you know, that does make, you know, as an American that makes you feel very safe and secure, and it's not the worst thing in the world. I mean, there's, you know, better stuff we we could and probably should be spending our money on at this point to like make Americans lives better, but that's a that's a whole other discussion. Um, but unfortunately a lot of Americans take this way too far where it's not even about safety. Like a lot of Americans take so much pride in our military power and nuclear bombs that it's like more of a it's it's more of an aggressive thing. It's more of like a threatening thing like, oh, we can do whatever we want. And it's like no that is not how the world works and it it should not work that way. That is a that's that's a horrible way for the world to work. And if if you take that point of view like there are many other countries around the world with huge militaries and I mean if we're mentioning it nuclear weapons and it's like [sighs] this point of view could just destroy civilized society if everybody acted that way. So I don't know why we act that way. It's it's very bad actually.

>> They us will just have to take it. This is the logic of someone who has never thought about why America is powerful in the first place. Yes, the United States has the most powerful military on the planet. Nobody disputes that. But here's the question MAGA never asks. Where does that military come from? How does the United States afford 11 aircraft carrier strike groups and 750 military bases around the world?

>> How do we afford it? I mean largely from like American taxpayers for one thing, but also just, you know, like America has a lot of uh wealth and money to and America prints a lot of money um to the detriment of our future. But whatever, as long as we can buy more submarines now, I guess. But yeah, unless there's something about this that I'm missing,

>> the answer is the economy. The US military is downstream of American economic dominance. The dollar's status as the world's reserve currency lets America borrow at rates that no other country can match. The centrality of American finance means capital flows into US Treasury bonds from every corner of the globe. That's what funds the Pentagon.

>> Oh, I see. Yes. Okay. That's certainly something that a lot of Americans don't think about. Yeah, that's a very good point. It's it's a little complicated, but you know, essentially he's talking about how uh the United States raises money by selling bonds, essentially taking loans from, you know, the rest of the world at a very low interest rate. And it's it's a very powerful tool that we have and it's basically predicated upon the fact that the US dollar is valued and used in a lot of the world and it's actually based on a lot of things that might be starting to kind of crumble away and like might not be true thanks to some of the stuff that the US and Trump have done recently But yes, like he's absolutely right. This is an extremely powerful tool that we have and we spend a lot of that on our military.

>> That is what makes the aircraft carriers possible. And here's what the tank counters don't understand. That economic dominance isn't a natural fact. It isn't geography. It's not destiny. It's a system. A system America built after World War II and has spent 80 years maintaining. A system based on one thing above all else, trust. And here is the thing that MAGA hasn't thought about. Europe has real leverage over that trust. They we hold 8 trillion in US bonds and equities. They've got a trade bazooka that can shut American companies out of 450 million consumers overnight.

>> Oh my god. 8 trillion. Like I I I'm aware that like there's there's European countries that are invested in the United States and one of those investments is like bonds and treasuries and but $8 trillion. So he's basically saying that America's power in in the form of our military basically relies on in large part Europe. uh you know loaning to the tune of $8 trillion to us um based on buying bonds and treasuries and the only reason you would do that is because you trust us and that's going away. I Okay, I mean [laughter] you better believe this is not something that most Americans are thinking about. Um, I I've been thinking about lately like how the American reputation is being ruined or has been ruined and the United States like the the the damage that's been done to the United States just by our reputation being ruined and as he puts it trust in us being ruined. People don't want to trade with us. People don't want to invest in the US. People don't want to travel here. people. Yeah. Um and I think he's right. A lot of Americans don't realize how big of an impact this is having and and going to continue to have. This is like a very very big deal. Yeah. Yeah.

>> They get to all of that. Trust me. But first, we need to truly appreciate why American power is so uniquely fragile and why Russia can survive isolation and America can't. The world uses dollars because they trust America. They buy Treasury bonds because they trust America. They route their transactions through American banks because they trust that the United States will be a reliable, predictable, rule following anchor of the global system.

>> Absolutely. This makes so much. And what what he's getting at I think he's getting at here is well or I can say a lot of Americans think that this system like w will never change. America's position is cemented. Our financial status cannot be shaken. None of this can go like that is absolutely not true. I think that's what he's getting at. um that all of the this gravy train that America has been riding with with these low interest rate loans and money printing and a lot of countries using our banks and investing in us. That's all based on trust and the trust is gone.

>> And here's the cruel irony. The very thing that makes America powerful is the thing that makes it vulnerable. Russia can survive being cut off from the West. They've been preparing for it for a decade. After Crimea, they started building alternative payment systems. They slashed their dollar reserves. They pivoted to China. When the sanctions hit in 2022, it hurt a lot. But their economy was already structured to absorb the blow. Same with China. They've got SIPs, their alternative to Swift. They've got a billion domestic customers. They're not fully integrated into the Western financial system, which means they're not fully exposed to it.

>> Oh, I mean, you better believe for how much for how much the US is pissing everyone off just making everybody hate us. For how much we're doing, we're not taking any steps to like prepare for isolationalism. Even though the US is clearly like taking on this isolationist approach where we're like, "Oh, we don't we don't need you or or you shouldn't need us or I I don't really know what our message is at this point anymore. I don't really know what we're trying to do anymore." Um, but yeah, we're certainly not equipped for the consequences of this.

>> America is the opposite. America didn't build walls against the global economy. America is the global economy. The US isn't strong despite being interconnected with the world. It's strong because of it. Every thread of global finance runs through New York. Every major transaction touches the dollar. That's not a side effect of American power. That's the source of it. Which means that when America acts like a rogue state, when it threatens to tear up treaties, invade allies, seize territories because the president had a tantrum about a medal, it doesn't just damage its reputation, it shakes the foundations of the very system that makes it powerful.

>> Now I get what he's saying. I I understand what he's saying. This is very This is bad and very important for Americans to understand. Now I am so glad I checked this video out. I think so many more Americans need to think about stuff like this because it's just it's easy for a lot of Americans to not even we to be to be honest the United States has enjoyed a long time of prosperity and power and a lot of Americans don't know anything else or can't even fathom that that could change or go away and based on recent events and all the stuff that we've been doing That's exactly what's going to happen. It's already happening. And what he's specifically getting at here is a a a very true uh very a point that's very difficult for a lot of Americans to acknowledge. I think it's that America is not powerful. It's not like we are powerful and did a bunch of stuff and it's like, oh, as a result of that, the world uses the US dollar and we get all these perks, these financial benefits. No, no, no. Because we set up that system, I he said after World War II, because we set up this financial system and because it's been adopted by a lot of the world, that has been what has made the US powerful. It's not that we became powerful from something else and then oh also we have all these financial benefits. No no no no the benefits are why we have been successful and now that is ending.

>> As a Cambridge University paper put it trust is cumulative and relational. But it can also dissipate when the hedgeman is seen as unpredictable or self- serving. Russia gets sanctioned and pivots to China. Their bilateral trade hit 240 billion with China now supplying 38% of Russian imports. America gets isolated and what pivots to whom? The world is already oriented around America. There's nowhere to pivot to. The network doesn't have a backup hub. So, let's talk about what's actually happening. If Trump lands troops in Greenland, and yes, I know that he almost certainly won't. He's taco Trump after all. But if he did, first NATO dies instantly. The Danish prime minister said it explicitly. If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. I mean, thank God Trump like finally came out and said, "Oh, I'm not going to use our military on Greenland." Um, he did finally say that, but like it's Trump, so you don't know what he's going to say one day to the next. But that did add a little bit of stability to this situation, man. But the idea that was the Greenland thing I think really woke a lot of Americans up who were kind of [laughter] there's a lot of things that Trump has done that should have woken up a lot of Americans already. But the Greenland thing, I think for a lot of Americans who are kind of in the middle politically, that madness really cuz the idea of the US like physically attacking another sovereign country with our mil like trying to take over another country like it's the Middle Ages like attacking to try to take the Greenland. It's a and the fact that that was a real thing that almost happened and it would have destroyed NATO and the betrayal. We've already betrayed the trust of like most countries in the world. This would just be may maybe there's some path to redemption for us, but if we did this, there's no path to redemption. It it it would be over. That'd be it. including our NATO. Republican Congressman Michael McConnell, chairman Emiritis of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said an invasion would turn Article 5 on its very head and in essence press a war with NATO itself. He said it would abolish NATO as we know it. And he's right.

>> 75 years of collective security gone. The alliance that won the Cold War, that kept the peace in Europe, that gave America forward deployed bases across an entire continent finished because of Greenland. And who

>> I mean if another if there was another country in NATO doing what the United States has been doing like every American would be outraged and like up in arms about it but and yet we are the ones doing this. Uh, I don't know. A lot of Americans don't agree with what's what we have been doing or what Donald Trump has been doing and saying. Um, but I think that's like the easiest way like for Americans to to understand this to try to step outside and see from an outside point of view. Like if there was another country doing all of this, like if it wasn't the US, if it was another country, we would think it's irredeemable, unbelievable, outrageous. Um, so yeah, that's that's what every American should think. I I I believe.

>> Who benefits? Like really, who benefits? Russia. The Kremlin is already celebrating. Putin's spokesman said Trump would go down in history if he pulled this off. One of Putin's top aids said it proves the transatlantic alliance is over. This is the gift of Vladimir Putin that he could only have dreamt of. But let's talk economics because this is where the Europe can't hurt us crowd reveals that they haven't thought about this for 5 minutes. The EU and the US have the most integrated economic relationship in the world. Together they represent 43% of global GDP and nearly 30% of global trade. In 2024, transatlantic trade hit 1.68 trillion. That is not a minor trading partner. That's the foundation of American prosperity. European companies directly employ 5 million Americans. Wow. 5 million jobs, more than the entire population of Ireland. Eur I'm going to be honest. Um, obviously I know that we do trade with Europe and European countries, but I I never heard the the stats. I didn't know it was like this much.

>> European investment in the United States stands at $3.2 trillion. 56% of all foreign investment in America. More than half of every foreign dollar invested in the United States comes from Europe. And it flows the other way, too. Of course it does. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, they pull somewhere between 160 billion and 300 billion in revenue from European customers every year.

>> Well, that's another travesty of this whole thing. It's been a mutually beneficial relationship between Europe and the US for a long time. and Trump has randomly decided that like Europe is taking advantage of us or we deserve more or [sighs] which is unfortunate because you know the United States has been in a very very good financial position talking about a lot of the stuff already mentioned in this video like the US dollar and the use of it and the use of our banks and our ability ability to to raise money and investments and we have enjoyed a fantastic economic status for years. We we should not be trying to change a thing. It's been great. Um I'm talking about like the last 30, 40, 50 years. Like it's been great generally speaking. And the idea that like that it's funny because Trump is trying to like make America more powerful but he may have literally ruined it for us like irre irreverably ruined all this. Magnificent 7 tech companies earn between 51% and 63% of their revenue from foreign markets with Europe as a major share. The European single market is 450 million people with money to spend. That's not a market you walk away from. So what does Europe do when America, if America invades a NATO ally? They we have options, real options. The EU has something called the anti-coercion instrument. It's never been used. They call it the trade bazooka. It allows the EU to shut American companies out of the European single market entirely, restricting trade licenses, blocking access to public procurement, limits on foreign direct investment, sanctions on specific companies and individuals.

>> So, Europe has literally like thought about this like like how uh Batman like how Batman has a contingency plan to take out Superman if he if he becomes evil. That's actually a pretty good analogy. Like Europe is Batman and you have this plan to take out Superman, the United States, if we become, you know, irredeemably evil. Um, and and it's this trade I've heard this term trade bazooka like there's apparently there's a lot of economic damage that Europe could really do to the US in a very real way. And let me tell you, Americans have no idea. Like most Americans have no idea.

>> France is already pushing for it. Macron called Trump's tariffs unacceptable and demanded a united and coordinated response. And if Europe doesn't go nuclear, they've got a 93 billion euro retalatory tariff package sitting on the shelf from last year, specifically designed to hit Republican states. Bourbon, soybeans, aircraft parts that hurt both. Then there's the pharmaceutical angle. The US is the world's largest pharmaceutical importer. Since 2023, pharmaceuticals are the top American import from the EU.

>> Of course we are. Of course we are the top importer of drugs and chem. Of course

>> $170 billion worth. Europe supplies 25% of all active pharmaceutical ingredients used in American drug manufacturing. 90% of US biotech companies rely on imported components. You want to talk about national security? Try explaining to American cancer patients why their chemotherapy drugs aren't arriving because the president wanted to steal an island the size of Mexico.

>> I was I was literally just I I was catching on to what what he's putting down here. What are you saying? it. America needs to realize like we are not the only country that can make threats. We are not the only country that can bully people. We or push people around or demand thing. It's just that most other countries, for example, the eur European countries that we're talking about here don't do that because you want to live in a civilized, prosperous society where like and have mutually you believe in mutually beneficial agreements and trade and uh yeah, it's annoying. It's very annoying that the US I guess Trump really thinks that like the United States were the only ones who could do all this or threaten all this. No, many other countries could. They just don't cuz they're reasonable. That's that's the distinguishment here

>> for its minerals. Then there's the financial dimension, the one that could really break things. European countries hold eight trillion dollars in US bonds and equities, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined. Bank's head of FX research has been explicit. Europe has significant leverage over America in global financial market.

>> I did not know it was 8 trillion. The dollar's status as the world's reserve currency, that exorbitant privilege that lets America borrow cheaply and run massive deficits, depends on trust.

>> This is such an important point right here that I know I keep saying this, but that Americans need to understand and they just don't. The reason we have enjoyed so much prosperity and have power is because the rest of the world agrees to trust us and use the US dollar and let us print money and go and take out debt and loans and because you trust us. Nobody trusts us anymore. So, this is all teetering on a a stack of cards, a stack of chairs, teetering with with Trump balancing at the top with like a circus ball or whatever. Trust that American institutions are stable. Trust that the rule of law means something. Trust that the United States won't seize an allied territory because the president didn't get an award. When that trust erodess, the dollar erodess, a Federal Reserve paper confirms the link. The loss of the US dollar's reserve currency status may thus precage a large decline in the global power of the US. And this economic advantage allows the US to finance a large and powerful military more easily. The dollar already dropped against the euro when Trump announced these tariffs, which of course he's went back on now already cuz it's taco Trump.

>> [laughter]

>> Okay, I I I've thought about like some of these things kind of like individually, but putting it all together like this has made it make a lot more sense and it's terrifying. Uh, I'll be honest, uh, to think about, you know, as an American, like, but at the same time, I I like I'm not mad or it makes complete sense that this would be the consequences of what we've been doing. So, it's just really frustrating.

>> Meanwhile, gold hit a record high. The markets are watching and they're starting to price in the possibility that the United States might be run by someone who doesn't understand that the system isn't separate from American power. Trump is threatening to torture all of that. He has already done irreparable damage [snorts] for an island. The US already has military access at all because he didn't get a medal. Because no one in power has any [ __ ] balls. This isn't strength. This is the geopolitical equivalent of a billionaire burning his company to the ground because someone didn't clap hard enough at his speech.

>> S seriously, seriously, it's it's honestly like good good to hear this. It's it's difficult to hear, but it's true. Americans should be way more outraged. Actually,

>> there are however two winners if Trump keeps going the way that he's going. Do you know who they are?

>> Russia

>> and China.

>> Okay. And that's the end. Well, that that wasn't fun for me as an American, but that was very valuable and uh very well presented. Very very good video. I enjoyed this a lot. Um well, I didn't enjoy it, but I did enjoy it. if you you know what I mean like uh a lot of great points and a lot of great insights um into the consequences that are going to befall the United States if we continue on this path and even if we don't continue on this path uh so much damage has been done and there's still like three more years of Donald Trump in office and this is that's that all happened in one year, everything that's happened. Think about that. But but I I think a lot of Americans miss the some of the nuance or maybe complexity of what's going on here financially and and how much we're going to suffer. It may take time, but a lot of Americans just simply don't understand this bigger picture of of the damage that's being done that we've done to ourselves really. So yeah, it it's it's tough. It's frustrating, but it's this is very good to to talk about. I think this was by again Stefan Woodford. Um, if you enjoyed this, feel free to give this video a like or leave a comment with your thoughts on this whole situation, the US, the damage we've done to the world, ourselves, and uh some of the consequences that are mentioned here. Um, that'd be cool to hear about. And if you're interested in more videos like this, feel free to subscribe for more. And until then, thanks for watching and see you next