Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Europe fears Trump's new rhetoric on Ukraine is a prelude to shifting blame - FT
UNN ^ | September 25 2025 | Staff

Posted on 09/26/2025 4:39:34 PM PDT by Kazan

European officials fear that US President Donald Trump's new rhetoric on Ukraine is aimed at shifting blame to Europe. Trump is calling on the EU for tougher sanctions against Russia and tariffs on China and India, which Europeans consider unfeasible.

European officials fear that US President Donald Trump's latest rhetoric on Ukraine "is intended to set them an impossible mission" that will allow the American leader to "shift the blame from Washington if Kyiv fails in the war or runs out of money," the Financial Times reports, writes UNN.

Details

As the publication writes, "after months of pressuring Ukraine to settle with Moscow and give up Russian-occupied territory," the US president on Tuesday stunned European capitals by stating on social media that Kyiv could "fight and repel" all its lands "with the help of the EU."

While Trump's new stance was welcomed in some circles, several European officials "concluded that he was shifting responsibility for Ukraine's defense to them with expectations that Europe would find difficult to meet."

Trump also took a tougher stance on sanctions, calling on the EU to stop buying Russian oil and impose tariffs on China and India – moves that Trump's Hungarian ally Viktor Orbán has long said he would block, the publication notes.

"This is the beginning of a blame game," one official said of Trump's sharp change of views, adding that "the US knew that tariffs on China and India would be impossible" for the EU to accept.

Trump is "building an exit ramp" to be able to blame Europe when and if he needs to, a European government aide said. The change was "striking" and "generally good," but Trump "set a very high bar," a German official noted.

"Trump wants to avoid that after nine months in power, this war also becomes his war," and not just "Biden's war," said Carlo Masala, professor of international relations at the Bundeswehr University Munich.

One European official pointed to Trump's signature "Good luck everyone!" under his Truth Social post as equivalent to a handover note.

Another European official said, "Everyone sees that he is disengaging."


TOPICS: Editorial; European Union; France; Germany; News/Current Events; Russia; Ukraine; War; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 666; agitprop; bidensfault; bidenwartardsupset; eu; europe; europeanunion; eussr; fakenews; financialtimes; fourthreich; molotovribbentrop; nato; newmolotovribbentrop; noitdoesnt; proxywar; putinthewarpig; revanchism; russiankeywordtroll; russiansuicide; tds; thebeast; trump; ukraine; vladtheimploder; welfarewar
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

1 posted on 09/26/2025 4:39:34 PM PDT by Kazan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kazan

The EU is schizophrenic!
Leaders doing too much coke!
https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/278602728/kallas-insists-us-shouldnt-offload-ukraine-on-eu


2 posted on 09/26/2025 4:43:13 PM PDT by doc maverick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

From the article, “ shift the blame from Washington if Kyiv fails in the war or runs out of money“….

Breaking news, they have already failed in the war ( look at the front, Petrovsk, Kupiansk, etc) and they have ran out of money long ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztYn1lJvPSM

Western Pekrovsk fallen, Killzone🔴Zelenskyy Is Ready for Serious Negotiations✍️The Decisive Assault Has Begun⚔️💥MS 2025.09.26


3 posted on 09/26/2025 4:47:35 PM PDT by delta7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan
European officials fear that US President Donald Trump's new rhetoric on Ukraine is aimed at shifting blame to Europe.

If they believe there is "blame" to be attributed, they are essentially admitting they were wrong.

4 posted on 09/26/2025 4:48:31 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Je suis Charlie Kirk.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

Trump can’t apparently fix the problem in Ukraine, so he’s going to fix the blame.

[Trump certainly did not cause Ukrainian.]


5 posted on 09/26/2025 4:49:15 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

Europe just does not want to spend the money and make the sacrifice. Their GDP is 8 times larger than Russia who is spending the money to press the war. Yet, they and their populus is so addicted to their social welfare benefits they refuse to live up to their responsibility. We have no vital national security interest there. They do. So, asking us to spend money in place of them is ridiculous. If Trump is shifting blame and setting them up by actually stating the truth, so what. They are crap allies to everyone even to each other.


6 posted on 09/26/2025 4:50:25 PM PDT by chuckee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

“…. the US knew that tariffs on China and India would be impossible” for the EU to accept.”

I don’t think he knows what “impossible” means.


7 posted on 09/26/2025 4:52:26 PM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

So far, the EU has shifted majority responsibility for Ukraine’s existence and the corralling of Russia onto the wallets of American taxpayers. Is it that unreasonable to demand the member states of the EU assume a primary role in protecting their own futures and the safety of Europe at large without imposing exorbitant costs onto Americans and the American economy?


8 posted on 09/26/2025 4:59:47 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

These Europeans are too smart for Trump.


9 posted on 09/26/2025 5:01:58 PM PDT by Raycpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

It is to laugh.

Maybe the Europeeins can have a fake “election” about it.


10 posted on 09/26/2025 5:05:21 PM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

Well....then the EU better not let Them fail or run out of EU money in Ukraine. See how easy that was.


11 posted on 09/26/2025 5:06:34 PM PDT by desertsolitaire (hite sea. My grandfather shouted warning to anyone who would listen that the Titanic was going to st)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

They refuse to negotiate unless they dictate the terms to Putin and unless President Trump promises to put US troops in Ukraine as ‘peace keepers’. That’s a NO from Trump.
So they think Trump has to keep funding their proxy war forever. The US already gave Ukraine 350Billion dollars, more than all other nations combined. It’s their TURN to waste their money on a war they lost long ago.


12 posted on 09/26/2025 5:12:05 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: delta7

“And now for the rest of the story!” With apologies to Paul Harvey. “David Petraeus - Putin’s Pokrovsk Gamble Ends in Disaster!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKTOrr_vJ0Q

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/25/frontline-report-ukraine-forms-largest-russian-cauldron-yet-in-pokrovsk-counter-attack-trapping-thousands-soldiers/

Video compilation of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian vehicles in the battle for Pokrovsk with a Vivaldi sound track.

https://x.com/414magyarbirds/status/1970429078919332171


13 posted on 09/26/2025 5:19:14 PM PDT by Uncle Lonny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

Uh, I hate to break it to them, but Europe IS to blame. (Russia is responsible for its actions of course.)


14 posted on 09/26/2025 5:20:41 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

What a bunch of cowards. Russia’s a paper tiger.


15 posted on 09/26/2025 5:28:51 PM PDT by McGruff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc maverick
Kaya Kallas --- High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and since 2024, and Vice-President of the European Commission.

A paraphrase --- We 450 million of the EU cannot fight 145 million Russians, unless 335 million Americans join us, and go first.

16 posted on 09/26/2025 5:54:49 PM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

“It’s Trump’s fault! We’re not going to pay one penny!”
Bwaaaa waaaa wahhhhhhh!
An inept bunch of hysterical, apoplectic, whining stooges…expecting the US to do everything for them and give them more money.
Sorry, the US taxpayers can’t afford your corrupt, idiotic countries anymore. and will not waste one more soldier in your circus!


17 posted on 09/26/2025 6:16:45 PM PDT by doc maverick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Kazan

Putin is to blame, if course. But in terms of stopping it, helping, alleviating death, etc… Europe is to blame.


18 posted on 09/26/2025 6:17:39 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doc maverick
--- "An inept bunch of hysterical, apoplectic, whining stooges…expecting the US to do everything for them and give them more money. Sorry, the US taxpayers can't afford your corrupt, idiotic countries anymore. and will not waste one more soldier in your circus!"

This is why I have commented on a number of threads with the link below, because the "EU cat is out of the bag" about this and has been for some time.

“500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians. [...] Europe today lacks the belief that we are truly a global force.”

Polish PM Donald Tusk, speaking before his flight to London for the European Ukraine summit. X, 2 March 2025

I wonder when or if this will be taken down, but Donald Tusk has been a mover-and-shaker in Poland and in the European Commission. The media has generally ignored what it plainly there to be seen and heard.

Now that the important Kaya Kallas as Vice President of the European Commission has validated the sentiment in a stumble-bum fashion, it seems their attempted manipulation of President Trump is being seen for what it has been.

19 posted on 09/26/2025 6:29:00 PM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Kazan
The Europeans whole plan was to escalate the war in Ukraine as funding and weapons supply authorization ran out.

The goal was to to manufacture a crisis in Ukraine that would force President Trump to restore the supply of US funded weapons and also intervene directly in Ukraine to avoid getting the blame for being “the guy who lost Ukraine”

This not only would keep the war rolling but would give President Trump's domestic enemies the tool by which to destroy his approval rating, allow the Democrats to win Congress in the 2026 elections and allow the Democrats to impeach President Trump a third time.after they have seized power

Basically President Trump's foreign and domestic enemies are conspiring to use the war in Ukraine to destroy President Trump and his presidency.

President Trump has cleverly out maneuvered them. He has smoothly shifted responsibility for the war in Ukraine to the EU, put himself in the cat bird seat where he can take credit for any success in the Ukraine and is positioned put the blame for the looming disaster in Ukraine where it belongs, directly on their shoulders.

Noe the EU leaders are whining that Trump has flipped the script on them, co opted their talking points and has left them holding the bag for the Ukraine war.

If the disaster they have been engineering in Ukraine, they will get the blame and their governments will fall.

The best part is that the EU and NATO y are now 100% dependent upon the US and President Trump's goodwill to bail them out the trap they were trying to set for Trump.

The bottom line is that President Trump has set himself up to impose a peace agreement on Zelensky and the EU and there is little that they can do about that.

Nobody plays the blame game like President Trump.

20 posted on 09/26/2025 8:30:27 PM PDT by rdcbn1 (..when poets buy guns, tourist season is over................Walter R. Mead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson