Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto is astounded that anybody else is astounded at the latest U.S. National Security Strategy document. The U.S. President has simply “made explicit” that the European Union “is of no use” to him, Crosetto wrote in a long post on X, adding: “The trajectory of American politics was evident even before Trump, who has merely accelerated an irreversible path.”

Certainly, the opinions on the EU contained in the White House text (and later echoed by Elon Musk on his own social network in the wake of the latter being fined in the EU: “Europe should be abolished”) are harsh, almost contemptuous. But the minister claimed even the tone, which he called “sharp,” was not a real surprise, “because Trump’s views (and those of many Republican or MAGA exponents) on certain issues and on the Union have been known for some time.” 

“For 3 years – in private, meetings, ministerial gatherings, interviews,” he added, “I have been saying precisely what was codified yesterday [Dec. 5] in the security strategy: namely, that the defense guarantees gifted after 1945 would be gone quickly.”

He........

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