Analysis
Crosetto: Trump has no more use for the European Union
“The worst of the news is that we should (and in my view, we must) plan for what our U.S. allies had provided us with until now, at no cost: security, defense and deterrence. I am not speaking only of the military kind.”
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 argued: “The U.S. has an increasingly difficult, complex and tough competition with China, and every action they take must be read in this context. Trump has made explicit that the EU serves him little or not at all in this competition.” The government’s line, therefore, is not to make too much of the White House text.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had already set the tone in an interview with the LA7 news broadcast: “In the strategic document, beyond the opinions on European policy – some of which I agree with, such as on immigration, which we are in the process of correcting, I think what’s being said with assertive tones is what has been developing for a long time in the debate between the U.S. and Europe: an inevitable historical path.” Just as Meloni stressed that “defense has an economic cost and produces political freedom,” Crosetto also warned: “The worst of the news is that we should (and in my view, we must) plan for what our U.S. allies had provided us with until now, at no cost: security, defense and deterrence. I am not speaking only of the military kind.”
This calm approach being pushed so insistently is, in fact, an act. The U.S. led by supposed “great friend” Trump has nevertheless told European countries – and weak Italy – that they must fend for themselves, while the government coalition is still torn over sending weapons to Ukraine. At the end of the month, the extension of the decree that the Draghi government approved in February 2022 (immediately after the outbreak of hostilities with Russia) and which Meloni has renewed year after year is expected. It should have already been approved, but the tantrums of the Lega forced the Council of Ministers to postpone the discussion.
On Dec. 5, Lega leader Salvini got a friendly warning from the other junior partner in the coalition, Maurizio Lupi of Noi Moderati. “In a coalition, all the more so if it is a cohesive one, there can be different points of focus and even different sensitivities,” said the NM leader. “But, as Salvini also knows, the role of politics is also to explain why certain choices are made.”
But while the vice-prime minister re-enacts the same script every year – and thus will ultimately follow the line of the government of which he is part – the opposition is the one that is truly divided. “We are at a serious moment; the aid package for Ukraine must be approved quickly,” said Lorenzo Guerini from the PD’s “reformist” wing. “The quarrels in the government risk playing into Putin’s game.”
Guerini is also president of COPASIR, the only body – according to the decree voted unanimously at the time – with the institutional role of knowing what Italy is actually supplying to Ukraine: how many weapons, of what type, for what purpose. Just Friday, the U.S. State Department announced it had sold Italy a supply of JASSM missiles (made by Lockheed Martin) worth $258 million, the latest tranche of an investment in American armaments by the Meloni executive worth €2.2 billion. The U.S. government note stated these were intended for the Italian armed forces, which would mean they don’t fall under the purview of PURL (the NATO system for routing U.S. arms to Ukraine).
However, as noted even by newspapers not hostile to the government, it cannot be excluded that these missiles – like other instruments of war – will serve to fill the gaps caused by arms supplies to Ukraine or end up directly with the Ukrainian army.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/crosetto-trump-sincero-leuropa-non-gli-serve-piu on 2025-12-07