Already weakened relations between Washington and Brussels have found a new brewing point in recent days – the European Union’s comprehensive digital and competition rules.

Many could agree that roses didn’t blossom when considering the duo this year. Starting from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs to concerns about the future path of NATO, response to potential solution of the now nearly four-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Washington and Brussels have often found each other standing on different sides.

Add to the mix the aspect of "free speech” or explosive statements by figures like Elon Musk that "the EU should be abolished” – it is clear that the relations appear to be on shaky ground.

At the recent Doha Forum, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, defended the ties with the U.S. by saying, "The U.S. is still our biggest ally.” However, a newly published U.S. National Security Strategy under the Trump administration underscored once again his "America First" approach, while strongly criticizing Europe in several domains, including migration and freedom of expression.

"The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the EU and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence,” the text released last week states.

Similarly, the strategy also mentioned "insufficient military spending and economic stagnation.”

'Decaying' to 'weak'

Some commentators have argued lately that "Europe needs to find its own way,” while Trump himself has sharpened his tone toward the continent, suggesting that Europe was "heading in very bad directions.”

In another interview, he called it "decaying.”

"I think they're weak, but I also think that they want to be so politically correct,” Trump said this week in an interview with Politico, blasting in particular the migration policies of some European countries and expressing discontent over "what happened to London and Paris.”

"They don't know what to do,” he added.

The EU bloc, with its 27 members, stands as a unique and relatively large grouping of nations that, in spite of history, traditions and different languages, still share much in common.

But for some time now, questions also swirl around the bureaucracy, hurdles to investment and relatively slow growth in recent years. The EU’s largest economy, Germany, has been lagging, failing to catch up with the post-COVID-19 recovery seen in some other countries, and southern nations of the bloc have actually been pushing its modest expansion.

Trade, free speech issues

With the return of Trump to the White House, the EU found itself in a tighter spot, considering bilateral trade with the U.S., its top market for exports. It responded by seeking trade deals and strengthening commercial relations with other regions, such as India, for example. It also launched a Trade and Investment Dialogue with the Trans-Pacific bloc last month and had agreed on a groundbreaking EU-Mercosur deal with major South American economies late last year.

Yet, exactly with Trump’s second term and the EU’s response to his sweeping levies, some cracks appeared, and critics also claimed that the deal agreed by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was rushed and unfavorable for Europe.

Washington and its European allies are also increasingly at odds over Trump's plan to end the war in Ukraine, which many European capitals fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Moscow.

Long before, at the start of the year, the first signs of a potential rift surfaced with remarks by Vice President JD Vance, who, in a speech in Munich, criticized limits on free speech in Europe. Apart from Vance, the tech billionaire Musk, who for a couple of months appeared to be one of the closest Trump allies through his now largely defunct "DOGE," also harshly criticized governments in Europe, while siding with Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Other senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have raised their voices as well.

The tensions especially flared following a decision of the European Commission to fine Musk's social media platform X for "breaching its transparency obligations" under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

"The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over,” Rubio said on X.

Separately, on Tuesday, the European Commission opened a formal probe into another U.S. tech giant, Google, "to assess whether it has breached EU competition rules by using the content of web publishers, as well as content uploaded on the online video-sharing platform YouTube, for artificial intelligence purposes.”

This marked the latest in a series of probes and fines by the EU market regulators on companies from Meta to Apple in recent years.

According to experts, this specific area can also be seen as a new fault line in relations between Brussels and Washington.

While the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and DSA stand out as sort of exemplary regulations and efforts to rein in Big Tech, the bloc is likely to be forced to choose whether to enforce them to the fullest or to prioritize transatlantic relations.

"The trans-Atlantic digital relationship stands at a critical juncture, defined by a fundamental clash between two powerful and deeply held worldviews,” enterprise analyst and trade finance specialist Andrea Frosinini wrote in a recent Medium analysis.

Supporters of European values have the upper hand for now, but the real test still lies ahead, Reuters quoted Rupprecht Podszun, a professor at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and a director at the Institute for Competition Law, as saying last week after the EU opened a probe into Meta regarding AI providers' access to WhatsApp.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday, on the other hand, said he still wants to see the U.S. as a partner despite Trump's recent criticism.

However, he also noted that "We are preparing ourselves for a change in transatlantic relations.”