It has been a bad week for the ‘Trump Whisperer’. The year-long charade of pretending that Sir Keir Starmer had some unique ability to control the inner urges of the rambling, orange idiot in the White House is well and truly over.

Donald Trump’s threat of economic warfare with European allies and his implicit threat of actual warfare with a NATO partner leave the most successful defensive alliance in human history in tatters. Yes TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) chickened out, as he tends to in some form, but the threat in itself leaves NATO mortally wounded, and the prognosis does not look good.

NATO was established in the wake of World War 2, as a means of ensuring collective defence for Western nations in the face of an emboldened Soviet Union. An attack on one would be treated as an attack on all, and the threat of mutual destruction prevented the outbreak of conflict at the height of the Cold War.

In reality, NATO is successful not because of its ability as a fighting force but because of its maintenance of an illusion.

Because in reality, that is what NATO is, a mirage that relies less on its ability to fight wars and more on the belief of its adversaries that it is willing to do so.

Our enemies are deterred by the threat that any attack on a member state will awaken the largest united military force ever seen.

That is why Donald Trump’s attacks on allies are so welcomed by Russia. Speaking yesterday, Putin’s right-hand man Sergei Lavrov could barely hide his glee at the spectacle of Donald Trump’s late-night social media outbursts as he seemingly encouraged the jumped-up reality TV star.

For NATO to exist, it relies on its credibility and on its enemies’ belief that it is willing to go to war to defend NATO territory. In one unhinged social media post, Donald Trump shattered the illusion that the defensive alliance is capable of responding to a Russian incursion.

Do we really believe that the United States would come to the aid of Estonia or any other NATO state on the eastern border? I don’t, you don’t, and neither does Vladimir Putin.

So what now?

The UK and Europe must accelerate plans to ensure their defence. By that, I don’t mean hold meetings that lead to grand announcements of action that might be taken in the 2030s. I mean rapid, meaningful measures that ensure Europe can project force and demonstrate a genuine ability to respond to attacks.

Last week, the Ministry of Defence announced plans to raise the age at which former service members can be recalled to service. Despite mockery from laymen at the idea of pensioners leading the fight against Putin, I welcome the move and believe it could add value, but the country must go further.

In January 2024, the then head of the British Army, Sir Patrick Sanders, was slapped down by ministers for having the audacity to state the obvious that some form of conscription should be considered.

Months later, the same ministers took his idea and turned it into a manifesto pledge to introduce national service. Once more, it was widely mocked, in part due to the back of a fag packet, paper-thin substance to the plans.

But in uncertain times, do we really have the luxury of not at least giving serious thought to the prospect of some form of military training for citizens?

Get rid of the word “conscription”, with its connotations of pals battalions sent to their slaughter in the battlefields of the Somme and Ypres.

Get rid of the term “national service” which evokes memories of boomers in a bygone era and replace it with something more fitting for the modern day.

Most NATO countries do it successfully, especially those in Eastern Europe, which are devoid of the partial but diminishing security offered by geography.

To prevent war, we must prepare for it. Whether mandatory or encouraged, we must at least reach a point where civilians are taught basic skills that would be required should the balloon go up.

It could be as simple as paying teenagers to spend a weekend learning how to strip, clean and fire a weapon, or introducing basic first aid into the school curriculum, a skill vital in everyday life, not just war.

We have three years left of a warmongering, potentially dementia-ridden US President in the White House, with no way of telling if the damage he causes to European security is repairable.

The peace dividend is no more, and the days when security was a luxury are long gone. We have little choice but to start preparing the UK population for war.