Deborah Cole

That was another thing he said when he lashed out.

Under Joe Biden, it was seen that defense of Ukraine was absolutely in American interest.

And

and that Russia was the adversary.

And, you know, Trump has obviously taken a very different approach when it comes to Russia as well.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that followed the dressing down he gave Zelensky in office, which, you know, you talk to German officials and the horror they experienced watching that.

And I think it was also because it drove home the sense that the Europeans really are on their own.

I mean, NATO alliance still exists, although Donald Trump said at the beginning of April that he could very much, you know, imagine the United States leaving NATO.

Yeah.

And the consequences of that obviously would be catastrophic for the Europeans.

But this idea, the whole sort of framing that the US military presence in Europe is really only a favor to the Europeans is one that really doesn't, you know, bear out in reality when you see how important, you know, these bases are for the projection of American military power in several regions around the world.

Well, you don't even have to just listen to the Europeans.

I mean, you know, there were Republicans after Trump made his comments at the end of last week saying, surely this is going to embolden the Russians.

I mean, if you're Vladimir Putin and see that the Americans are going wobbly in terms of, you

Then it's, you know, it's an embossed invitation to at least pursue more provocations when we've seen these hybrid attacks, you know, for the last several years.

And, you know, one of the biggest fears is that, you know, the Russians could go beyond Ukraine, you know, potentially into the Baltics, for example.

Or Poland, yeah.

And the Europeans have tried over the last several years since the first term of Trump to build up their military strength, but they're certainly not in a position yet to be able to defend themselves against a nuclear power like Russia with an enormous army.

And so as time goes on,