Europe is at it again — lecturing the world while undermining America.
This time, it’s not NATO spending or energy policy. It’s the European Union’s attempt to export its green bureaucracy straight into the heart of the U.S. economy — and, worse, hand Beijing a competitive gift in the process.
Twenty-two Republican attorneys general recently warned President Trump about this scheme. They’re right. Brussels is pushing two new policies — the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — that would force U.S. companies to comply with mountains of red tape dreamed up by European bureaucrats.
These rules require companies doing business with the EU to produce exhaustive “sustainability” reports — from climate effects to workforce data — covering their entire global supply chains. It’s regulatory imperialism dressed up as virtue.
Many of these climate-era mandates create an uneven playing field. They’re applied inconsistently, enforced selectively, and loaded with red tape that falls hardest on American firms. Whether by design or neglect, they act as speed bumps that slow U.S. innovation while giving foreign competitors — especially China’s state-run industries — a smoother path. Instead of advancing environmental progress, they expand bureaucracy, reduce efficiency and tilt the scales away from the producers who play by the rules.
The result is a strategic gift to China. While American firms drown in compliance costs, Chinese companies, which dominate green manufacturing and mining, glide right through. Beijing’s state corporations don’t face activist shareholders or environmental, social and governance audits. They don’t care about Brussels’ paperwork; they care about dominance.
For U.S. manufacturers, this is no small hassle — it’s an existential threat. Imagine a midsize plant that sells into Europe suddenly having to certify every supplier and emissions source or face penalties and lawsuits. That’s not capitalism; that’s coercion.
Europe has already learned this the hard way. Its fixation on “net-zero” has driven energy prices sky-high, shuttered factories and made it dependent on Chinese solar panels and Russian gas. Now, the EU wants us to join them in self-inflicted decline. No thanks.
Trump should waste no time acting on the call to arms from the attorneys general. He should direct the Trade Representative to reject all EU attempts to impose extra-territorial mandates on American companies.
Trade policy must serve U.S. sovereignty, not European ideology.
The principle is simple. If an American company operates in America, it answers to American law — not to bureaucrats in Brussels.
It’s time for a pro-worker, pro-industry doctrine of economic self-defense. We must block foreign regulatory mandates on U.S. soil, protect firms from lawsuits tied to overseas rules, and promote energy independence by rejecting green protectionism that kills jobs while subsidizing Chinese solar and EV supply chains.
America leads when we produce, innovate and build — not when we bow to global activists.
This fight isn’t Europe versus America; it’s global elites versus working people. The same bureaucrats and financiers who weakened Europe’s economy now want to manage ours. They talk about “sustainability,” but they mean control — rules that stifle growth, centralize power and erode sovereignty.
When the same institutions keep producing outcomes that leave America weaker or less competitive, it’s worth asking why. Are we analyzing those choices clearly, or reacting through the lens of partisanship and frustration? Real patriotism means checking our own impulses and making sure our loyalties line up with the country’s long-term strength, not short-term political emotion.
Let’s be clear: Many nations and institutions are happy to benefit from America’s innovation and defense while trying to curb our influence or rewrite our values. Real leadership means discernment. We can cooperate without surrendering sovereignty, trade globally without importing every globalist fad.
Too often, some in the political class forget that distinction. They mistake dependency for diplomacy and consensus for strength. When America leads confidently, when we stand for free enterprise, energy independence, and national pride, the Free World benefits.
Make no mistake. Many who constantly second-guess and criticize this country do so out of conviction, not confusion. They think that a strong America is a vice, not a virtue. They think our confidence is arrogance, our leadership domination, and our success something to be restrained, not respected. They think America is to be managed, not thanked. To some, friction is a feature, not a bug.
It’s as much not us against the world as it is the world too often against us — and that’s why America must lead with clarity and conviction.
That’s the divide — between those who see America’s strength as a problem to manage and those of us who know it’s the world’s force for good.
The task now is to remember who we are: a nation built on work, courage and freedom — one that succeeds not by permission of others but by the strength of its people and the clarity of its purpose.