This Tuesday, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and other European leaders ignored the warnings of President Trump to drop ties with the Chinese telecoms company Huawei and went ahead with allowing the company to develop the 5G network on the continent -- a move that could trigger similar decisions from other world leaders, Business Insider reports.
Johnson's move comes in the wake of Trump warning America's European allies to enact a blanket ban on the company.
According to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the development amounts to "the biggest strategic defeat for the United States since the early days of World War Two."
"I think people have got to wake up and understand this is a huge failure of our government bureaucracies to respond to a challenge we have seen coming," he told the BBC in an interview.
Another Trump backer, Liz Cheney, who is the third highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, also decried the development as detrimental to the US.
"By allowing Huawei into their 5G network, @BorisJohnson has chosen the surveillance state over the special relationship," she tweeted. "Tragic to see our closest ally, a nation Ronald Reagan once called “incandescent with courage,” turn away from our alliance and the cause of freedom."
Business Insider reports that the UK's defiance over Huawei is compounded by Europeans leaders' displeasure with Trump's actions against Iran, specifically the targeted killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
"The developments show that, while the US continues to exert enormous lobbying power over policy in Europe, solidarity across the continent in the face of Washington's lobbying efforts is acting as an increasingly powerful corrective," Business Insider's Thomas Colson and Adam Bienkov write.
