During a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020, former White House President Donald Trump promised not to help Europe in the event of war. This was reported by French European Commissioner Thierry Breton, quoted by Politico.
According to Breton, Trump then tried to impress with a statement that NATO was "dead" and promised to withdraw from the Alliance.
"You must understand that if Europe is attacked, we will never come to your aid and support you... By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will withdraw from NATO," Breton quoted Trump as saying.
Breton called on the European Union to strengthen its self-defense capabilities in the face of Russia's conflict with Ukraine, namely to create a €100 billion fund to develop arms production in the region.
"It was a big wake-up call (Trump's words - ed.), and it could come back. So now, more than ever, we know that, of course, we are on our own. We are a member of NATO, almost all of us, of course we have allies, but we have no other options but to dramatically increase this support to be ready for whatever happens," Breton said.
