Bombshell leaked US government documents reveal Donald Trump is unlikely to help Europe if Russia’s president Putin attacks.
The secret “guidance memo” from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth focuses on deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defence, but also has some telling lines about the plans for Europe hidden in the details. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance” was marked “secret/no foreign national” in most sections and was sent around the Defense Department at the pentagon last week, signed by Mr Hegseth.
According to the Washington Post which has seen the leaked paperwork “it outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the near abroad, including Greenland and the Panama Canal”.
It says Mr Hegseth’s guidance acknowledges that the USA is unlikely to provide substantial, if any, support to Europe in the case of Russian military advances, noting that Washington intends to push NATO allies to take primary defence of the region. The US will support Europe with nuclear deterrence of Russia, and NATO should only count on American forces not required for homeland defence or China deterrence missions, the document says.
Several sections of the document are similar to a longer 2024 report by the Heritage Foundation, some of which are nearly identical, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of both documents. When Trump was a presidential candidate for the second time he denied that Heritage’s Project 2025 plan, which set out a far-right transition agenda across government, was a blueprint for his second term.
His policies and appointments, including this leaked Pentagon guidance, make clear that Heritage’s plans have been influential in the first months of his administration.
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