25 January 2026

Europe Is Prepared to Create Its Own Army

Luke McGee

Donald Trump’s first full year back in the White House has brought with it more existential questions for America’s European allies than his entire first term. Trump has made repeated claims that the real threat to European security is not Russia’s Vladimir Putin but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Trump’s latest fixation is seizing Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally.

Europeans have bent over backward to accommodate an unpredictable White House and keep Trump on side by agreeing to dramatic increases in their national defense budgets while carefully courting of the U.S. president. In the past year, they have reached deals where European governments would effectively pay the United States to keep weapons flowing to Ukraine and commit their own troops to secure Kyiv’s sovereignty in place of any U.S. guarantees.

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