US Vice President JD Vance has hit out at Europe for ‘refusing’ to tackle migration and defence, saying Donald Trump is trying to ‘preserve European civilisation.’
In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Vance rebutted claims that the Trump administration dislikes Europe.
‘We don’t. We love Europe,’ he said. ‘Why do we want Europe to control its borders? Because we love European civilization. We want it to preserve itself.’
He continued: ‘Why do we care about economic growth? Because they’re one of our most important allies in the world. We share a common civilizational heritage.’
The Vice President said the US ‘cares about NATO‘ because it wants Europe to have the ability to defend itself if ‘god forbid’ they were to be invaded.
‘We love Europe so much, we’re actually demanding that they do what their own leadership refuses to do, which is look after themselves and be smarter,’ he said.
His comments come as Trump recently aimed another barb at NATO allies, claiming European personnel stayed ‘off the front lines’ in Afghanistan.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said: ‘I’ve always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? That’s really the ultimate test, and I’m not sure of that.’
Vance rebutted claims that the Trump administration dislikes Europe
The Vice President said the US ‘cares about NATO’ because it wants Europe to have the ability to defend itself
‘We’ve never needed them,’ he said. ‘They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.’
In contrast, ‘we’ve been very good to Europe and to many other countries’, Trump said, referencing the US, but added: ‘It has to be a two-way street.’
Speaking in Davos on Wednesday, the US President made a similar swipe against the 32-member military alliance, saying: ‘I know them all very well. I’m not sure that they’d be there. I know we’d be there for them. I don’t know that they would be there for us.’
The claims, however, overlook the fact that Nato member countries suffered hundreds of deaths during the Afghanistan war, triggered after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York.
Britain alone lost 457 troops, while another 2,000 military and civilian personnel were wounded in action. France, Germany, Italy and Denmark also suffered many deaths.
During his extraordinary speech at the WEF, Trump elaborated on why he thinks America deserves to control Greenland, frequently turning back to the Second World War.
Trump elaborated on why he thinks America deserves to control Greenland
‘We saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere,’ Trump said.
‘After the war, which we won, we won it big. Without us, right now, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps.’
He added: ‘After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. We gave it back, but how ungrateful are they now?’
He also declared that ‘Europe is not heading in the right direction’ due to unchecked ‘mass migration’.
He showered praise on the ‘booming’ US economy, claiming ‘inflation has been defeated’ and America’s previous ‘open and dangerous border’ has been closed.
Meanwhile, ‘certain places in Europe are not even recognisable’, he said.
Trump declared that ‘Europe is not heading in the right direction’ due to unchecked ‘mass migration’.
‘We can argue about it, but there’s no argument. Friends come back from different places – I don’t want to insult anybody – and say, I don’t recognise it. And that’s not in a positive way, that’s in a very negative way.
‘And I love Europe and I want to see Europe do good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.’
The President said issues such as ‘energy, trade, immigration and economic growth must be central concerns to anyone who wants to see a strong and united West’.
He continued: ‘They have to get out of the culture that they’ve created over the last ten years. It’s horrible what they’re doing to themselves.
‘They’re destroying themselves… We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones.’