Trump slammed Europe as poorly governed and failing to regulate migration in an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns that aired Tuesday in a special episode of The Conversation podcast.
“I think they’re weak,” Trump said, referring to the continent’s presidents and prime ministers, adding, “I think they don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do.”
Pope Leo added the Trump administration’s peace plan for Ukraine “unfortunately” marks “a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States.”
Trump’s proposal to end the war, which sidelined Brussels and included several major concessions to Russia, including ceding vast swathes of Ukrainian territory and capping the size of its military, drew alarm from Kyiv and its European allies and led to frenzied negotiations in Geneva to come up with an alternative framework.
“It’s a program that President Trump and his advisers put together. He’s the president of the United States and he has a right to do that,” Pope Leo added.
But the Catholic leader said brokering peace talks “without including Europe” was “unrealistic.”