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Donald Trump’s second term as US president will have global consequences. NATO could face a turbulent time.
Even in his first term, the relationship between NATO and Donald Trump was very strained: he repeatedly threatened that he would pull the US out of NATO if the other members of the alliance did not make efforts to contribute more to NATO.
In his victory speech, Trump declared that he will end ‘all wars around the world’. For Ukraine, Trump has a plan: phasing out US support for Zelensky and a ceasefire with Russia in exchange for Ukraine not joining NATO.
‘In any case, many European countries, with NATO member state Poland in the lead, do not like Trump’s solution by any means,’ international politics professor David Criekemans of the University of Antwerp told Belgian media. ‘They fear that such a solution would signal to Russia that it could invade neighbouring countries relatively unimpeded.’
‘If Trump follows through with this, I can then also see NATO, which is mainly supported financially by the US, ending up in a serious crisis. For Europe, which is still underweight militarily, that is very bad news,’ he concluded.
