Europe’s security elite braces for Trump, searches for backup plans

With aid for Ukraine stalled and a US election on the horizon, European leaders, officials, and diplomats are increasingly aware of the need to engage former president Donald Trump and his allies on security, but they are struggling, mightily, to do so, The Washington Post said, Report informs.

For months now, much of Europe has been watching US politics with numb dread, seeing President Biden’s weakness at the polls and fearing a return to the years when Trump threatened the transatlantic relationship that left them prosperous and cozy under the US military’s security blanket.

With the largest European land war since World War II raging, Trump’s flirtation with Russia and loose talk on NATO now feel like less of a warning than an open invitation for invasion. Europe is worried and outraged, but not sure what to do next.

According to The Washington Post, European officials have privately discussed building a continentwide complement to NATO, one that would work in concert with US security assurances but could also serve as a credible alternative if US guarantees are pulled.

For now, those conversations are knotted in familiar disputes. France and Germany can’t agree on who would foot the bill. Eastern Europe doesn’t fully trust Western Europe’s resolve against Russian threats. And it’s not clear how they would build a nuclear shield over the continent—aand even if they did, they would fall far short of matching Russia’s arsenal in the worst-case event of a nuclear war.