Enough. America’s allies have gritted their teeth, bitten their lips and fixed their smiles. They have fawned and flattered. To no avail. Donald Trump is what he has always seemed: a nationalist bully set on bending American power to deep personal prejudices. Quitting the Iran nuclear deal is not the pursuit of a foreign policy; rather an act of boastful defiance. The president wants to show the world that he can do as he pleases.

This is not the first time Europeans have been confronted with Mr Trump’s disdain for an international order that used to underwrite US global leadership. America First has seen him quit the Paris climate change accord, jettison the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, tear up trade agreements and question the Nato alliance. Then there are the twitter fusillades accusing Europe of being soft on terrorists or tolerating imaginary no-go areas of Muslim migrants. The allies for the most part have kept their counsel.

The exit from the Iran deal is different. It marks the biggest rupture in transatlantic relations since the end of the cold war and mocks the west’s efforts to uphold a rules-based order. It surrenders the international high ground to a deeply unpleasant regime in Tehran. And it pours petrol on a region already in flames. A region, incidentally, that sits alongside Europe.