Vance: Trump issued ‘wake-up call’ to Europe with NATO remarks

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sunday suggested former President Trump’s recent remarks that he’d encourage Russia to attack NATO allies who don’t carry their financial weight was a “wake-up call” to Europe and its security spending.

Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, argued Europe does not do enough to ensure its own defense.

“The final point that I’ll make just to respond here, because I know people have heard what Trump said, and you know, they’ve criticized it, and they’ve said, well, ‘Trump is going to abandon Europe,’” Vance said during his Sunday remarks. 

“I don’t think that’s true at all. I think Trump is actually issuing a wake-up call to say that Europe has to take a bigger role in its own security. Germany just this year will spend more than 2 percent of GDP. That, of course, is something that we had to really push for in the United States, and it just now has finally cleared that threshold.”

Trump’s recent comments about NATO have split members of his own party and stoked fears about what a second term in the White House could mean for the transatlantic security alliance. 

During a campaign rally on Feb. 11, Trump recalled a story about when a foreign leader questioned him about his threat not to defend members who do not hit the alliance’s defense spending targets. 

“You didn’t pay?” Trump said he responded. “You’re delinquent. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.”

During his presidency, Trump repeatedly pressed member nations to commit 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to defense spending and threatened on various occasions to withdraw from the alliance. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at least half of the 31-member alliance is expected to meet that figure in 2024, which is up from seven members in 2022. 

Vance on Sunday argued America does not want to pull out of NATO or abandon Europe, but he did suggest the U.S. should shift its focus to East Asia and called on European allies to “step up.”

“The United States has to focus more on East Asia. That is going to be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact,” he said. “I do not think that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is an existential threat to Europe, and to the extent that he is, again, that suggests that Europe has to take a more aggressive role in its own security.”

Vance clarified that he does not believe Putin is a “kind or friendly person” but suggested the U.S. should be more open to some degree of diplomacy with the Russian leader.

“The fact that he’s a bad guy does not mean we can’t engage in basic diplomacy and prioritizing America’s interests,” he said.

Vance, a former Trump critic turned staunch ally, has expressed repeated opposition to further aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The Ohio Republican has said he does not believe Ukraine will ever be able to prevail over Russia and argued the U.S. needs to accept Ukraine will likely need to “cede some territory” to stop its fighting with Russia.