This article analyses how European strategic autonomy has been viewed and understood by different US administrations since the late 1990s, focusing especially on how the Russian war in Ukraine and the first months of the second Trump administration impacted European attempts to build up strategic autonomy. There are both external and internal drivers behind the need to develop European strategic autonomy—Europe’s ability to act autonomously, to set political objectives and to act upon them either alone or in co-operation with other actors. The external impetus for a strategically more capable and independent Europe comes from threats and challenges, such as conflicts in the near neighbourhood, transnational terrorism and assertive Russian foreign policies. Russia’s illegal attack on Ukraine in 2022 fortified the political will to speed up the build-up of European strategic autonomy and military capabilities. The threat stemming from Russia is, however, not the only reason to develop European strategic autonomy. The United States has, for decades, demanded that Europe build up its capabilities and ability to take care of its own security and defence. The foreign policies of the second Trump administration have dramatically altered transatlantic relations and forced Europe to rethink its security and defence architecture and ideas of strategic autonomy.