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European Leaders Condemn Trump’s Pro-Russia Remarks

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – European leaders rushed Monday to call for a new defense strategy after ex-U.S. President Donald J. Trump encouraged Russia to attack member states of the NATO military alliance who do not meet their financial obligations.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said Monday there was “no alternative” to the European Union and the transatlantic alliance. Tusk spoke before a summit discussing deepening defense relationships with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

“It is probably here in Paris that the words from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas resonate most clearly: ‘All for one, and one for all,’” added Tusk, in an indirect reference to Trump, who seeks re-election and is the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

Trump caused outrage and concern in Europe on Saturday when he said he would not defend any NATO member who failed to meet a longstanding target of spending 2 percent.

NATO’s figures for 2023 spending reveal that 19 of its 30 member nations are spending below the target of 2 percent of their annual GDP on defense – among them Germany, Norway, and France.

Yet even NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg went out of his way to say that Trump’s suggestion the U.S. would not protect allies failing to spend enough on defense “undermines all of our security.

Stoltenberg also claimed that the comments put American and European troops at greater risk.

ENCOURAGING RUSSIA

The Republican said he told allies he would “encourage” Russia to attack any NATO member that failed to meet the alliance’s target of 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Members of NATO commit to defend any nation in the bloc that gets attacked. However, addressing crowds during a rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump said he had made his comments about Russia during a previous meeting of leaders of NATO countries.

The former president recalled that the leader of a “big country” had presented a hypothetical situation in which he was not meeting his financial obligations within NATO and had come under attack from Moscow.

He said the leader had asked if the U.S. would come to his country’s aid in that scenario, which prompted him to issue a rebuke. “I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’… ‘No, I would not protect you, in fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want. You gotta pay.'”

Trump, who has been leading in the polls ahead of this year’s presidential elections, did not say which nation or leader he spoke about or even when this conversation occurred.

Yet besides worried Europeans, President Joe Biden called Trump’s comments “appalling and dangerous.” He suggested his predecessor intended to give Russian President Vladimir Putin “a green light for more war and violence.”

Trump has made clear, however, that as president, he wants to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.

His views are publicly supported by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seen as one of his closest EU allies. Both men believe that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could end through peace negotiations, not on the battlefield.