Italy’s repechage to the World Cup: Donald Trump moves on to threats

U.S. President Donald Trump called a possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Italy as well “likely,” claiming that the country “has not been at all helpful” in the conflict with Iran. Asked by a reporter about a possible downsizing of U.S. forces in Italy and Spain, as well as Germany, the White House chief said, “It’s likely.”

Trump then recoiled, “Why wouldn’t I? Italy has been of no help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.” And again, “It’s NATO. It’s not even the fact that it’s one thing. If they said it nicely, or if they said, ‘All right, we’ll help you.’ But the help is a little slow. And we help them with Ukraine. They made a disaster with Ukraine, a total disaster. And we help them with Ukraine. Ukraine has nothing to do with it. We are separated by an ocean. It’s about them. It’s like their front door. We help them.”

The U.S. president also criticized the previous administration’s choices, “And Biden gave them $350 billion, which was crazy. That’s one of the reasons why the war continued. But when we needed them, they were not there. We have to remember that.” Then he added, “And so if we ever got a big one, because we didn’t need help with Iran, we had beaten Iran from day one. It was over, it was over, and now it’s even more over.”

To Trump’s statements responded Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, who expressed puzzlement to ANSA: “I would not understand the reasons. As is obvious to anyone, we have not used Hormuz. And we also made ourselves available for a mission to protect shipping. Which, moreover, was very much appreciated by the U.S. military.”