Trump told ally U.S. wouldn't help if Europe was attacked — then asked for $400B: report
French European Commissioner Thierry Breton claims that Donald Trump once said that America would not come to the aid of Eurpoean allies if they were attacked militarily, Politico reported.
"'You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you,'" Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020, according to Breton.
Breton recounted the story at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. He says the EU's then-trade chief Phil Hogan was also present for Trump's comments.
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"'By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO,'" Trump also said, according to Breton. "And he added, ‘And by the way, you owe me $400 billion, because you didn’t pay, you Germans, what you had to pay for defense,'" Breton said.
"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 drastically this pillar in order to be ready [for] whatever happens.”
Read more at Politico.