'He would abandon our allies if he doesn't get his way': Europe under a second Trump presidency

One of the great unsolved mysteries is how many current and former members of the U.S. military supported Donald Trump even as Trump pledged to stab our European allies in the back, effectively providing aid and comfort to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s military designs on the European continent.

An AP VoteCast poll of 94,000 voters found that 59% of military veterans supported Trump in the 2020 election. This is despite Trump’s oft-voiced disdain for servicemen and -women wounded or killed in action. (“Losers” and “suckers” were the precise words he reportedly chose before canceling a visit to the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in 2018 due to rain.) Not to mention his mocking disparagement of John McCain’s status as a former prisoner of war (“I like people that weren’t captured”) and his extensive, well-documented history of expressing contempt for the military, which apparently dates back to his high school days.

But despite this contemptuous insouciance toward the sacrifices made by military veterans—which might reasonably stem from his pampered background—his repudiation of America’s longstanding, ironclad commitment to the defense of Europe in the face of potential Russian aggression may strike the most discordant note of all. It represents not only a betrayal of American servicemen and -women and their mission, but a betrayal of an American national security strategy that exists—ultimately—to protect the entire U.S. population and preserve our strategic position in the world.

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