Germany and France will trade with Iran, but not with us...
With allies like this, who needs enemies?
Or NATO.
France’s unemployment rate as of Dec was 9.2%. They need a trade deal with Mexico like a hole in the head.
Germany’s in better shape with an unemmployment rate of 3.2%. The pain from the trade deal won’t be as obvious there. They can lose a few industries before they notice.
They'll trade with Iran because the Iran deal allows them to. If the U.S. drops out of that then the Iranian market is closed to the U.S. and Europe and Asia will pick up the deals.
Germany and France will always trade with the U.S. because there is a market here for their goods. But the European market for U.S. goods will be impacted by the lack of trade agreements.
Or NATO.
Then drop out.
NATO has far outlived its usefulness. Because of NATO Europe has not had to make that classic choice of guns vs butter. It is safe to say that with NATO, every industry in Europe was subsidized by the US.
Get rid of NATO and suddenly Europe is on a level economic playing field with the US since they will then have to fund their own defenses.
Do we really care anymore if Russia invades Germany? I don’t and never have, aside from that fact that we have had our own troops there. Bring them home and let’s stop caring completely.
Otoh, I’ve always held that the real reason for (or at the least the real effect of) NATO was to keep Germany from invading Russia -again-, and France, -again- for that matter. Splitting Germany after WWII was genius.