Now Europe knows what the Trump administration is thinking privately. Europeans have reacted with anger and surprise to the publication of parts of a chat conversation in which representatives of the US government, including Vice President JD. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, expressed “hatred” and “disgust” towards Europe. Yesterday, in defense of the vice president and the head of the Pentagon, Donald Trump strengthened his position even further, publicly declaring: “I think the Europeans are parasites”. But the case has also caused embarrassment in the United States. Republican Representative from Nebraska, Don Bacon, has openly criticized the chat: “The way they hate Europe is shameful”. Many conservatives have long felt embarrassed by the attacks that the Trump administration is launching on historical allies.
Vance is described as “more anti-European” than Trump himself. He had already attacked allies at the Munich conference, when he had mentioned a “suicide of civilization”. But the shocking words in the private chat on the Signal platform, which came to light because the director of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, had mistakenly joined the conversation, and published some passages.
One of the issues was the decision to attack the Houthis in Yemen to secure the trade routes. “I just hate that I have to bail out Europe again,” Vance wrote. “I share your disgust with Europe, which benefits without paying – it’s pathetic,” Hegseth replied. “But Mike is right, we are the only ones in the world who can do this. It’s just a matter of time.” Indeed, more than twenty countries are involved in protecting merchant shipping in those routes. Italy, for example, has expressed its position through its foreign minister. Antonio Tajani commented: “Having said that the word ‘hate’ is not my thing and is not part of my vocabulary, I want to remind you that we protect our own merchant shipping, with our Navy having shot down several drones launched by the Houthis. Perhaps Vance, who is new to the job, doesn’t know the context well, but we are involved in several operations with the US and the UK.”
Angela Rayner, the British deputy prime minister, said it was “up to the United States to clarify statements made in private” but reiterated the strength of relations with the US. Meanwhile, Mike Martin, a member of the Defence Committee, was less diplomatic: “The US vice president and the defence secretary hate Europe while trying to extort money from it.”
European governments have tried to tone it down. The German government has said it “read the news.” Meanwhile, French General Michel Yakovleff, who worked for NATO, called the chat authors “a bunch of incompetent and arrogant idiots.” The Trump administration’s policies are becoming increasingly clear. In a recent podcast, the envoy for the Middle East and Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, supported the idea that Gulf economies could replace European ones. “They could be much stronger. Europe today is dysfunctional.” The host, Tucker Carlson, a close friend of Trump, added: “It would be good for the world, because Europe is dying.”
