Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Many European leaders are considering the prospect of another Trump presidency with a sense of, well, trepidation.
00:10They fear what it could mean for U.S. support for Ukraine, for NATO, among other worries.
00:15On the other hand, Kamala Harris would mean a very different approach.
00:19Here at Fast 24, Monty Francis with this.
00:23When Donald Trump announced J.D. Vance as his running mate,
00:28it reignited fears about what a second Trump term could mean for Europe.
00:32Vance has made his isolationist views clear from the start.
00:36Just after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Ukraine, he said on a podcast,
00:42quote, I got to be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.
00:49Trump himself has put ongoing funding for Kiev in doubt
00:52and has vowed he would end the war in 24 hours if he wins without explaining how.
00:58He's also said he would not come to the defense of a NATO ally that was under attack by Russia
01:03if that member wasn't paying a sufficient amount on its own defense.
01:07No, I would not protect you.
01:09In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.
01:12You got to pay.
01:14The U.S. Congress has since passed legislation to limit a president's ability to pull out of NATO.
01:20But with the exception of Hungary's Trump-friendly Viktor Orban,
01:23EU leaders have spent months increasingly concerned about what a Trump-Vance administration
01:29could mean for Europe's overall security.
01:32If 2024 brings us America first again, it will be more than ever Europe on its own.
01:43When it became clear that Trump would be the Republican candidate in 2024,
01:47French President Emmanuel Macron argued that Europe should be more assertive on the world stage
01:52and not depend on the U.S. for its own long-term security.
01:56Will the U.S. administration remain the same?
02:00No one knows, and we cannot delegate our collective security and our stability
02:05to the choice of American voters in the years to come.
02:10When NATO members gathered in Washington in July,
02:13they made attempts to make the alliance Trump-proof,
02:16agreeing to support Ukraine on an irreversible path to NATO membership,
02:21along with a long-term pledge of funding to key from NATO allies.
02:25Even with a new Secretary General in Mark Rutte,
02:28the pragmatic Prime Minister of the Netherlands,
02:31who some have referred to as the Trump Whisperer,
02:34there are fears that if Trump ends up in the White House a second time,
02:38he could still undermine the alliance.
02:42Let's bring in Fraser Jackson, our Washington correspondent,
02:44casting his critical eye, as always, on how both U.S. presidential candidates are shaping up,
02:49and now zooming in on the U.S.-Europe relationship.
02:53Fraser, great to see you, looking nice and sunny where you are,
02:56raining here in Paris, we can't have everything.
02:58Trump is for Brussels, an ill wind perhaps that could blow cold across the continent,
03:03protectionist in business, against support for Ukraine,
03:06Trump even a fan of Vladimir Putin, who's wanted for war crimes in Ukraine.
03:10What would a Trump presidency have in store for Europe, do you think?
03:13Give us a sense of that.
03:17I think the worry of that Trump presidency is looming over the United Nations General Assembly,
03:22several foreign diplomats worrying about this, preparing for the future.
03:27That is also what I'm hearing in my discussions with these diplomats here in Washington, D.C.
03:32They are preparing for, as one person called it, the worst-case scenario,
03:36and they are concerned that if Trump gets in, those comments that he's made in the past
03:41about NATO membership and Ukraine will hold true.
03:44He's been speaking about this as recently as Tuesday night,
03:48where he said that Vladimir Zelensky is the world's greatest salesman.
03:54He said every time he comes to Washington, he walks away with $100 billion.
03:59It must be said that the State Department so far says it has given Ukraine $56 billion in total since 2022,
04:07and there's no evidence that any more than that has gone out of the U.S. coffers.
04:11But I hear this clearly, something that Donald Trump is running on
04:15and something that his base are listening to as well.
04:18I'm going to read you just a quick takeaway from a poll that came out just a couple of weeks ago,
04:23talking about the U.S. support for Ukraine.
04:27They polled Republicans and Democrats as to whether they think that the U.S. should stay in the war as long as it takes,
04:34or they should leave within an increment of one or two years, five to ten years.
04:38The majority of Republican voters, 53% of them, said that they wanted Ukraine to be funded for up to one or two years.
04:4537% said that they should stay as long as it takes.
04:49That number jumps significantly to 63% when you look at Democrats,
04:54who say that the U.S. should stay with Ukraine as long as it takes for them to win this war.
04:58The other interesting thing, the level of funding.
05:00This has been something that the Republicans have touted many times,
05:03that Ukraine was getting too much money, and it appears that that is also resonating with their voter base.
05:09There was a bit of a split here.
05:1152% of Republicans said that Ukraine is getting too much money from the American government,
05:17whereas most Democrats, 39% of those polled, said that it's about the right level.
05:22So significant split there between not only the candidates at the top of the ticket,
05:26but also the bases that they represent.
05:28Kamala Harris, of course, has rebooted the Democrat challenge since taking over from Joe Biden.
05:34I understand leading in the polls, but you, of course, will correct me on that if I'm wrong,
05:38because your knowledge is far greater than mine, and I bow to it.
05:42What would it mean if she wins?
05:44Would it be basically a continuation of the Biden situation?
05:50It's pretty much business as usual if Kamala Harris does take over the presidency from Joe Biden.
05:56That's something that Kamala Harris will be discussing with Volodymyr Zelensky
06:00when he comes here to the White House on Thursday.
06:02He'll also be meeting with Joe Biden.
06:04Notably, there is no meeting with Trump on the cards,
06:06although apparently Volodymyr Zelensky did ask for one, but the Trump campaign not giving him one.
06:10So something to read into there.
06:12But yeah, that definitely will be what the Ukrainians will be hoping for,
06:15is that there will be a continuation of a Democratic White House,
06:18because that funding that they so desperately need, that victory plan that they want to put to the Democrats
06:23so key to their victory will continue under Kamala Harris,
06:27pretty much, like I said, with business as usual.
06:30So it's going to be something that everybody will be watching closely,
06:34and the Ukrainians will be watching closely as they try to get this victory plan in effect
06:39before the November election and then ultimately the January inauguration as well.
06:47So something to look out for there.