European Leaders Fear Trump May Abandon NATO’s Mutual Defense Clause

Europe fears that Trump will not follow NATO’s Article 5, which obliges allies to collective defense in case of an attack by other countries.

German chancellor candidate and leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, believes that Europe must be prepared to defend itself without the United States.

“We have to be prepared for the fact that Donald Trump will no longer unconditionally support NATO’s mutual defense commitments,” he told reporters.

Merz noted that it is extremely important that Europeans make every effort to ensure that they are able to defend the European continent on their own.

In recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump has been increasingly expressing solidarity with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

These comments followed U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, in which he called major European parties a more dangerous threat to European security than Russia.

Since then, European leaders have become increasingly concerned that they will no longer be able to rely on the United States and NATO’s collective defense.

Therefore, Merz urges European allies to pay attention to this.

He emphasized that he was not fully convinced that the Trump administration would support NATO Article 5, which obliges allies to collective defense in the event of an attack by other countries.

Merz also answered journalists’ questions about whether Germany should seek protection under France’s nuclear umbrella.

He acknowledged that French President Emmanuel Macron had repeatedly made such a proposal to Berlin, but it was left unanswered.

Last December, NATO took over from the United States to coordinate Western military assistance to Ukraine.