Over his years in Washington, a European defense official — granted anonymity to speak freely — grew used to a certain warmth from his American counterparts.
He gave the Air Force’s annual conference as an example. Every year he went, the speakers thanked U.S. allies for their help, and at least one U.S. officer approached him with a question: “What can we do for you?”
That changed this month, at the same conference in Aurora, Colorado. The scarce crowd in attendance barely mentioned American allies, the official noted. No one asked him what he needed.
For many Europeans either visiting or posted to Washington, moments of comity are becoming scarcer as the second Trump administration rapidly alters America’s 75-year military role in Europe.
Officials described struggling to get meetings with their Pentagon counterparts, including longtime contacts. At the same time, in private conversations, American defense officials are delivering abrupt changes in policy, from a drop in American forces on the continent to a lack of interest in having them counter China in the Pacific. The shift has many European officials wondering who they should listen to, and what is the Pentagon’s new strategy.
“It feels like the task is not to promote European allies and NATO but to ensure a U.S. withdrawal with minimum fuss,” said a second European defense official.
This story is based on interviews with half a dozen European officials, all of whom were allowed to speak anonymously to avoid becoming a target of the Trump administration. They described the personal effect of a new chill felt from the Pentagon toward Europe, one that is already causing their governments to doubt America’s commitment to them, and in turn their commitment to America.
Warning signs
The warning signs for Europe under the second Trump administration came early. The president has long been skeptical of America’s role in NATO and accused European partners of free-riding off U.S. military power. That rhetoric hardened when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the alliance’s headquarters in February.
“Leaders of our European allies should take primary responsibility for defense of the continent,” he said, arguing they should spend closer to 5% of GDP on defense.
In private, some on the continent welcomed the lecture. A record 23 of NATO’s 32 members now spend the alliance’s 2% floor of GDP on defense, but Europe would still struggle to defend itself without American assistance — a problem clear to many of the countries in the east.
What no country in the alliance wants, though, is American abandonment, something Europeans began to fear two weeks after Hegseth’s speech.
In late February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Oval Office to sign an agreement trading natural resources for U.S. military support. It ended up in a shouting match, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance berating him for a perceived lack of gratitude.
The U.S. paused military and intelligence support for Ukraine days later, a suspension that lasted a week.
Trump had threatened such steps before but largely avoided acting on them in his first term. The pause made it clear to many in Europe that this time was different, said Max Bergmann, who studies European security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It [created] the sense that the U.S. is walking away, and may not be on our side,” Bergmann said, describing European sentiments.
For many Europeans inside or visiting Washington, Zelenskyy’s visit has come to represent a growing sense of alienation they feel from the U.S., especially from the Pentagon.
Several defense officials from the continent described having much more difficulty getting meetings with counterparts in the Defense Department, even with long-term contacts. Some said their counterparts were now having to get approval from supervisors before gathering casually, say for coffee or lunch.
Others who have secured meetings reported stiff discussions in which U.S. officials stuck closely to prepared talking points, despite at times outlining sharp changes in policy.
After years of courting allies to take the threat of China more seriously, the Pentagon is now discouraging Europeans from getting more involved in the Pacific. Countries such as Britain and Germany that join U.S.-led military drills around Asia haven’t yet been disinvited, the officials said, while noting that they still saw it as a possibility. Instead, the message now is that Europe should focus almost solely on its own security.
“[There is] no demand signal from the U.S. for the Europeans to be involved in the Pacific,” one official said.
Meanwhile, Europeans are also preparing for a drastic change in America’s military posture on the continent. Pentagon officials have previewed a drawdown in private, though they haven’t specified which units will depart, except to say it will likely involve the 20,000 troops the Biden administration surged to Europe after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Several top policy officials now in the Pentagon have previously argued that the U.S. military is over-committed in Europe and should shift forces toward Asia, to better deter China.
‘Buy European’
That said, some European officials are struggling to discern the signal from the noise, hearing different things from different parts of the administration. Their confusion is part of a larger issue many allies are facing: Who has real authority when Trump himself dictates so much of America’s foreign policy?
Indeed, one official said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was assured during his March visit to Washington, where he met with Trump, that the 20,000 troops surged to Europe would remain.
“The United States has repeatedly reaffirmed its strong commitment to NATO. President Trump emphasized this when he met with Secretary General Rutte at the White House last week,” a NATO spokesperson said when asked for comment.
The alienation has also not been universal. While visiting Europe last month, Hegseth traveled to Poland and had a warm reception with the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also serves as the defense minister.
“It’s quite intentional that our first European bilateral is right here in Poland,” Hegseth said at a press conference. “We see Poland as the model ally on the continent,” he continued.
Poland spends over 4% of GDP on defense, and its president has pledged to increase that to 4.7% this year, which would make it the largest among NATO countries. And up until last year, Warsaw had been governed by a right-wing party that courted Trump, at one point even proposing a Polish military base named after the U.S. president.
Other allies are taking note.
In early March, Britain’s secretary of state for defense arrived in Washington to meet with Hegseth, a cordial meeting that ran 30 minutes longer than scheduled. Speaking with reporters later, John Healey delivered two points.
One, the United Kingdom was grateful for the Trump administration’s effort to end the war in Ukraine, despite the still-active pause in aid.
Two, Britain was stepping up. A week before, Britain pledged to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP within two years — on the way to reaching a full 3% later on.
Other members of NATO have since unveiled pledges of their own to spend more, a top goal of the Trump administration.
In private, officials from some of those countries offered a counter: Don’t expect the extra money to go to American defense firms — the new creed in Brussels amid a planned rearmament of the European Union to the tune of hundreds of billions of euros.
“I expect Europe to buy European,” Bergmann said.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
