Trump told EU that US would never help Europe under attack – EU official

According to a high-ranking EU official, Donald Trump promised top European leaders that if Europe were attacked, the US would never defend it. According to French commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees the internal market of the European Union, Trump suggested as much to President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020.

Speaking during a panel discussion on Tuesday in Brussels, Breton recalled the meeting he attended. U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign sharply criticized Trump on Wednesday due to his remarks.

Breton cited Trump as stating at the Davos summit, “You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you.”

In a speech at a European Parliament event that the political organization Renew Europe organized, Trump reportedly added, “By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave; we will quit NATO.”

Breton cited Trump as stating, “And by the way, you owe me $400 billion, because you Germans, you didn’t pay what you had to pay for defense.” When asked if von der Leyen’s account of Trump’s statements agreed with Breton’s, a spokesman for the head of the European Commission declined to answer.

“The President, as a matter of principle, never shares with the public what her interlocutors have shared with her in private sessions. Therefore, we won’t respond in any way,” the email representative stated.

Phil Hogan, an Irishman who is the European Trade Commissioner and was reportedly present at the Davos summit, did not immediately respond to an email requesting a comment. According to surveys, Trump is the clear favorite to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024, and he will face off against Biden in November.

A Biden team representative stated: “The idea that he would abandon our allies if he doesn’t get his way underscores what we already know to be true about Donald Trump: The only person he cares about is himself.” Trump’s team did not immediately answer a request for a response. Trump frequently fought with traditional allies on trade and defense expenditures during his first term, from 2017 to 2021.

Beyond generalizations like ending the conflict in Ukraine in a day, Trump has provided little information about the foreign policy he would follow if he were to win in 2024, raising concerns in European capitals.

According to current and former advisers and diplomats, he would probably choose loyalists to important posts during a second term, giving him greater latitude to implement isolationist policies and whims.