The US will not come to Europe’s aid if it was attacked militarily, former president Donald Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020, a report by Politico stated, citing an EU official.
Speaking at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton revealed that Trump told the EU chief that “you need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you”.
Breton, who was also present at the Davos meeting, stated that Trump told von der Leyen that “NATO was dead” and that the US would “quit” the alliance, Politico reported.
“By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO. And by the way, you owe me $400 billion, because you didn’t pay, you Germans, what you had to pay for defence,” Trump said, according to Breton.
The EU official’s revelation about Trump said at a time when the Republican Party is holding its fifth presidential debate in Iowa.
Trump, who is vying for a second White House term, is way ahead in the polls to become the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, which is slated to be held in November this year.
Meanwhile, the EU has expressed apprehensions about Trump’s probable return to the US presidency.
“That was a big wake-up call and he may come back,” Breton said about Trump.
“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 this pillar drastically in order to be ready (for) whatever happens,” Breton further said.