European concerns over US commitment to Nato persist after Trump’s criticisms – Europe live

European concerns over US commitment to Nato persist after Trump’s criticisms – Europe live

In a video from his private lunch, which was briefly posted on the White House YouTube channel before it was taken down, he questioned the value of Nato, arguing that the Iran war showed him that the alliance “won’t be there if we ever have the big one; you know what I mean by the big one.”

(I, for one, don’t think it’s clear who ‘the big one’ is. Russia? China?)

Somewhat more worryingly for Europeans, he then continued, adding:

“If we ever have the big one – hopefully we won’t, [our] relationship is very good with the big one, better than with Nato – but they won’t be there.”

In another passage, he criticised “very bad” allies in Nato, and said the alliance was a “paper tiger,” simultaneously arguing it was disappointing that the allies didn’t help in Iran while it was also “the last thing I needed.”

Separately, he also ridiculed France’s Emmanuel Macron for his 2025 incident in which he appeared to be getting shoved by his wife, Brigitte.

Discussing his recent phone call with the French president, Trump said: ““I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw.”

He then mocked Macron’s accent in English and claimed the French president only wanted to help “after the war is won.”

Now, it’s worth remembering that these remarks were not meant to be public and were made at a private event, but they still tell us something about how Trump sees Nato and his European allies.

And who on earth is “the big one”!?

After all the excitement about Donald Trump’s rapidly escalating rhetoric on Nato and (his own) suggestions he would go even further in last night’s address to the nation, he … just didn’t say anything about it at all.

Whether it was the late phone call intervention by Europe’s finest Trump whisperer, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, or the prospect of next week’s Washington visit from Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte, we will never know, but the fact is that we live to fight another day.

There were some usual swipes about “delayed courage” of unnamed allies, but we heard all of that before. In fact, the word “Nato” did not even feature in his speech. (As I kind of suggested was an option yesterday.)

Instead, Trump used a prime-time address to the nation to declare the month-long war in Iran a success “nearing completion”, despite, erm, a spiraling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded the president’s approval ratings.

But the alarm caused by Trump’s comment remains real, even as some still doubt whether he would want to – or could – follow through on his dramatic comments about leaving the alliance.

The Guardian’s Julian Borger also rightly noted that any attempt to leave Nato formally would be likely to trigger a constitutional crisis that would almost certainly go to the US supreme court. However, the court has a record of siding with the executive in disputes over foreign policy issues.

But Ruth Deyermond, a senior lecturer at the department of war studies at King’s College London, said the crisis facing the alliance would not simply recede at the end of Trump’s White House tenure.

“This is wishful thinking,” Deyermond said on Bluesky. “The failure to understand the importance of the alliance for US security and the taking of allies for granted isn’t unique to the Trump administration.”

I will bring you some European reactions to Trump’s speech and all the other news from across the continent.

It’s Thursday, 2 April 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.