David Schultz, professor of political science at Hamline University, visiting lecturer at Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) and member of the MRU LAB Justice Research Laboratory.

A week into Trump's second term as President, the global security situation looks more fraught. What it means for Lithuania and European security is not yet clear, but the opening signs are not good.

Within hours of Trump sworn in to his second term as President, his isolationist and nationalistic approaches to American foreign policy were already emerging. While many of his executive orders dealt with matters internal to the United States, some also had global and border implications. The focus is on immigration, where he issued an executive order declaring a national emergency along the US-Mexico border, deploying US troops there. He reinstated several asylum policies that limited the ability of individuals to come to America and has taken other action to make it difficult for immigrants to enter America.

But additionally, Trump issued several other executive orders or took steps that will only weaken America by withdrawing it from the international scene. Yet again, he took the US out of the Paris Environmental Accords. He also exited the United States from the World Health Organization and his new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has indicated a freeze on all US foreign aid. The fears of a tariff war have also emerged, with Trump already targeting Colombia as well as China.

Trump's actions are not just directed at adversaries, but also NATO members. This includes his confrontational conversation with Denmark seeking to bully a fellow NATO member into selling Greenland to the United States. Contrary to the worst fears, so far, Trump has not pressured Ukraine into a unilateral capitulation or surrender in the war. Candidate Trump said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. So far, his tactic was threatening Russia and Putin to end the war less it faces tariffs and sanctions. Not surprisingly, Russia has rejected that approach. What Trump plans to do next is yet to be seen. The issue may not be so much what he does as it may be that he ignores European security needs.

In his first week as president again Trump is not talking about pulling the US out of NATO but instead seeking to encourage its members to increase their defense spending. For countries like Lithuania, it is becoming increasingly apparent that they may need to think of a world and of a security situation without the United States. While short term, this is fraught with problems. Longer term, it is possible that Europe without America might very well be a reality, and that Trump's presidency may be the warning signal to prepare for the proverbial end of the American century and a European commitment to protect itself.