‘PATHETIC’: Leaked Signal texts aren’t just embarrassing for Europe — they’re a warning

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/pathetic-reading-between-the-signal-lines-america-s-scorn-for-europe-is-clear-20250327-p5lmuk.html

by marketrent

48 comments

  1. Their attitude towards Europe was alarming to say the least.

  2. By Rob Harris:

    *[…] The text exchanges, primarily between Vice President J.D. Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, an ex-Fox News host, reveal a blunt and unvarnished view of Europe as a “freeloader”.*

    *At the heart of the exchange was a decision on whether to proceed with airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, with the US weighing the potential impact on Saudi oil facilities.*

    *Vance’s sentiments were clear: “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” Hegseth agreed, calling the situation “PATHETIC”.*

    *This candid assessment of Europe as a burden is hardly new for US officials under the Trump administration. From repeated criticisms of NATO’s defence spending to demands for higher European contributions to Ukraine’s defence, the tone has long been set.*

    *But these texts – made public after TheAtlantic’s editor-in-chief was mistakenly added to the high-level group chat in the Signal app – shine a light on the more personal and informal attitudes driving US policy.*

    *They make it clear that the administration has no interest in securing Europe’s interests.*

    *For Vance, in particular, the military action against the Houthis was all about Europe’s so-called “free-loading” on American protection.*

    *[…] In further texts released, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said while the US was going ahead with the strikes, it needed to be clear to European allies that it was not for free.*

    *“As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement, e.g. if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost, there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”*

    *[…] What stands out in these recent texts is the bluntness with which US officials discuss the costs and logistics of military action.*

    *National security advisor Mike Waltz goes as far as saying that the US would “levy” the costs of their actions on the Europeans, an indication of how transactional these relations have become. In essence, the US is seeing Europe’s involvement as an obligation, not an alliance.*

  3. “embarrassing for Europe” – No Sir! It was not embarrassing for Europe. It was embarrassing to the ‘Muricans who voted for these people.

  5. Oh it’s clear what their plan is, Greenland taken as “payment”

  7. I do not feel embarassed, but i do actually feel grateful for those leaked messages. Now there will be no more doubts about what we need to do, which is staying away from the amerimutts. Easy as that.

  8. embarrassing for Europe ? its embarrassing for any american with more than one functioning brain cell

  9. I love how they say they are “paying for Europe”, when i fact they are paying for their own global power..
    That is also why Trump in his first term increased spending in the gulf region.
    Not to please us, but for their own pressure politics.

    Because if they leave that area, their is only 1 navy strong enough in that region to take its place as control.
    That of China..

  10. The only embarrassing think for Europe here is that we’ve allowed the yanks to have such control over the world.

    They should never have been allowed to have such influence, via hard or soft power.

  11. Everyone can agree on one thing: it is an embarrassment

  12. Literally the worst people in power in the US. They have been conditioned to be this way by about 15/20 years of unregulated social media misinformation..

    We really need to make sure this doesn’t happen in Europe. It has happened to an extent but the brain rot is not as widespread. Strong regulation needed.

    I’d also like to see Musks toxic platform banned right away!

  14. I think most of Europe had already seen the warning signs since nearly every major player in the EU has stepped up and put more money into defence and towards Ukraine already.

    What ever game Russia is playing with America and China isn’t working for them because it is only making Ukrainian resolve of joining Europe even stronger and in turn with America backing off making Europe even stronger taking up the slack.

    Wonder if Russia is patting themselves on the back right now.

  16. I find myself trying to think about some 4D chess type explanation because I can’t quite believe how stupid these people are.

  17. What has bombing an African terrorist group in Africa anything to do with Europe in the first place?

  19. Embarrassing for Europe? US you mean, buy what do you expect from a Murdoch rag.

  20. Imagine people… they work in serious institutions. This is all Americas fault, but them being such attention whores lately, to levels exceeding every attention whore + myself when I’m in that mood lol, that’s something. To have Elon Musk go on random Twitter accounts and prove his stance says a lot as well 🙂

    Insecurities be waging all around from those in governing power, that’s for sure! But, sadly to just think how incapable those people are and in what power they’re at – to decide about peoples lives like that, on some literal basic instant-messaging app and to do such a fuckup.

    If they do that, who knows how they’ll handle serious threat in America if it appears, them going like this, it’s just really about to become… when it happens.

    Sad sight.

  21. The 🥚s are not just missing, they are hollow as well.

  22. I’m not embarrassed, as a European. I’m fkn chuffed that we’re under their skin so much. Hate us, love us, don’t care, we will find a way to stop relying on the US, something we should have done ages ago.

    Bipolar shithole.

  23. Yeah fuck these MAGA fascists. Europeans bled for America when they called upon us in Afghanistan. We lost young men and women because we *were* allies. I hope a proper opposition will rise up in the US.

  25. Embarrassing for Europe…Nope, we don’t gaf what that fktard thinks or says.

  26. I’m not surprised at all Vance thinks Europe is in the Middle East.

  28. I don’t feel embarrassed. Does someone here feel embarrassed?

  29. Long story short: MAGA America cannot be trusted with security and shared secrets.

  30. America is a pathetic bully…

    Trump and his gang of youngster idiots will be despized for YEARS.

    Israel and america wil keep being the persistet turds in the comunity punch bowl.

  31. The attacks on Suez shipping is a direct response to the behaviour of Israel and the US in Gaza. They aren’t bailing out Europe, US and Israel caused the situation.

  32. Honestly, it was embarrassing.

    People here seem to be in denial of this, but the reason they see us as weak and incapable of operating without their “charity” is because it’s in part, true.

    What they’re saying is obviously hyperbole, and things are now beginning to change. But let’s face it, they’re not completely wrong.

    Ukraine is the perfect example of this. We should be able to deal with it ourselves. We have the economy. We have the numbers. And we’ve had 3 years to prepare for a US government which *we knew* would be more transactional and friendly with Russia.

    And what did we do? Really?

    Very little…

    I know we have given more to Ukraine than the US, I know we’ve enacted sanctioning and shown our support. But really our governments slept walked into this catastrophe, and we, the people, let them.

    Yes, the Signals chat was embarrassing for the US administration, yes they’re stupid and obnoxious – but the reason they see us as useless partners they have to save – is because we’ve allowed ourselves to be seen that way.

    Until we take a good look in the mirror and accept that we do rely on the US, that won’t change.

    And we really need to change.

  33. How many fucking “warnings”, “alarms” and “wake up calls” are actually needed?

    Guess what? They fucking hate us. They’re our enemy. Stop pretending they’re not and acting like it’s all a big surprise or misunderstanding each new time this shit happens.

  35. Not remotely embarrassing for Europe, it makes Americans look thick as shit though, again.

  36. USA is a young country. Europe is much older and survived many more hardships. It will be fine. That remains to be seen for the US.

  37. I think someone else should be embarrassed. And how many warnings do we need at this point?

  38. I’m from the UK and think Brexit might do Europe a favour, here.

    We were the place the transatlantic bridge landed in the EU but we aren’t any more.

    Brexit has been a disaster for the UK but I think, I hope, that will help the EU and Europe more widely break their addiction to the USA. The UK was the gateway to that drug but now it’s gone.

    I hope this reconfiguring of the world’s politics will lead to a stronger and truly united Europe and Scandinavia and the UK realising what it could be a part of and where its common interests and history truly lie.

    Europe needs to take a lesson from the people of Canada and pull together on this. It is vitally important. We, more than anyone, know where fascism leads and we need to unite, sans frontier, and say NO, NON, NEIN, NIET, NODE, NEI, NEJ, EI.

    I truly hope we will.

  39. No, they are not. They just show USA has become a shithole, everything just like Putin wants. I wonder how long USA will crawl out of this mess. Yeah. hard times ahead for Europe. A lot bigger crap for average American.

  40. it’s not embarrassing for Europe – it’s absolutely embarrassing for the US. – their inability to govern without alianating all of their allies is just absurd.

  41. We knew this already when JD Vance visited Europe. Now we’ve got it in writing.

    We knew this already when D. Trump turned out to be just as unreliable as we thought and said the EU was invented to screw the US. Now we’ve got it in writing.

    We knew this already as we were informed about D. Trump’s aspirations for Greenland (and Canada)

    They loathe Europe. They loathe everything foreign, except Russia. 

    Message received. The rest of the world will reroute.

  43. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world is laughing, not embarrassed, at this latest episode of “Trumping Bad” (Episode 1.03 “Signalgate”).

  44. It’s actually a good thing to know what they think. With these losers and incompetents, Europe has a chance to become significant and overcome national divisions

  45. How is it embarrassing for Europe? I would be proud to piss off people like Trump and co. If anyone should be embarrassed it should be the brain-dead Americans who voted for them.

  46. Embarrassing from Americans, not Europeans. Americans have some of the worst leaders in their entire history. Let’s hope whoever comes next after Trump will be rational and restore the damaged relations between USA and Europe. The world is already fucked up; democracies need to stick together.

    The current American gov’t hate the scenario where Europe is becoming a global superpower on par with USA. That’s why they’re trying to divide Europe. Europeans need to put together a strong unified army and don’t depend on Americans anymore. The only real and immediate threat is Russia and Europe can handle that, especially after Ukraine decimated a large part of the Russian army. The only thing that save the Russians from being obliterated is the nukes.

  47. Mike Huckabee and Peter Hegseth have espoused strong Christian Zionism beliefs, which hold that Israel’s existence is tied to biblical prophecy and the Second Coming of Christ. They both believe in the Third Temple.

    https://www.npr.org/2024/12/02/nx-s1-5193348/what-trump-teams-christian-zionism-beliefs-mean-for-gaza-war-west-bank-settlements

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/06/pete-hegseth-defense-religion-christian-00192117

    https://forward.com/opinion/692974/pete-hegseth-christian-zionism-american-jews/

    https://www.atheists.org/2024/12/pete-hegseth-nomination-religious-extremist/

  48. Title is embarrassing to whoever wrote it.

    Beyond shameful: leaked signal texts aren’t just the biggest military embarrassment the US has ever caused, solely through it’s own incompetence – they’re a warning not to trust them ever again.

    FIFY

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