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Speaking to global leaders in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a blunt warning to Europe. “Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” he said, arguing that the continent still isn’t ready to stand on its own without U.S. backing.
Zelensky’s remarks reflected a growing anxiety across Europe — that decades of reliance on American protection left the continent ill-prepared for a more dangerous era. While European countries have contributed troops, weapons and money to conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine, the ultimate backstop for NATO’s security has remained Washington.
President Donald Trump has openly challenged that assumption, repeatedly warning NATO allies that U.S. protection should not be taken for granted, and insisting the U.S. needed to take Greenland from Denmark
Before he ruled out the use of force to wrest control of the island, European officials had worried about a military dust-up between Western powers would mean the end of NATO.
“Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,” Trump mused on Truth Social Thursday.
“Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European allies. (Danylo Antoniuk/AP)
Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. may not defend allies that fail to invest in their own security rattled the alliance and pushed European governments to pledge sharp increases in defense spending.
Even so, European leaders continue to acknowledge how central U.S. power remains to NATO’s defense. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has pointed to the American nuclear umbrella as the alliance’s “ultimate guarantor,” alongside a strong U.S. conventional presence in Europe.
“We are still having a strong, conventional U.S. presence in Europe,”…
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