- A top EU official revealed that Trump said the US would not help Europe if attacked.
- The official said it was a “big wake-up call” and expressed fears about a second Trump presidency.
- As president, Trump was openly critical of the EU and questioned the US commitment to NATO.
Former President Donald Trump privately warned that the US would “never” help the EU if it were attacked, a top European Union official has revealed.
While speaking at an event on Tuesday, French European Commissioner Thierry Breton recounted Trump’s conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, per Politico.
“You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you,” Trump said, according to Breton, who was also present at the meeting.
According to Breton, Trump then said: “By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO.””
“And he added, ‘And by the way, you owe me $400 billion because you didn’t pay, you Germans, what you had to pay for defense,'” Breton said.
Throughout his presidency, Trump questioned the value of the United States’ commitment to NATO and complained that other countries were not spending enough to support the alliance.
He also called the EU a “foe” and Brussels a “hellhole” and imposed tariffs on European goods, leading to trade tensions.
Meanwhile, Trump has also often praised the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and appeared awestruck by the Kremlin leader, despite is invasion of Ukraine.
Trump looks poised to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, setting the stage for a showdown with President Joe Biden in the upcoming November election.
Breton expressed fears of a possible second Trump presidency and what that would mean for US-EU relations.
“That was a big wake-up call, and he may come back,” Breton said.
“So now more than ever, we know that we are on our own, of course. We are a member of NATO, almost all of us, of course we have allies, but we have no other options but to increase drastically this pillar in order to be ready [for] whatever happens.”
Breton heads the EU’s industrial policy and defense agenda and recently proposed a €100 billion fund to elevate arms production within the bloc amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Politico reported.
