US Vice President JD Vance blasted European allies as "pathetic", claiming that they were "free-loading" off the US in another win for tyrant Vladimir Putin
News Ryan Fahey News Reporter 12:59, 25 Mar 2025Updated 13:03, 25 Mar 2025
Vladimir Putin will be overjoyed after senior members of Trump's cabinet blasted European allies in a private messaging chat. Members of the Signal group chat - some of the most powerful men and women in the US - used playful emojis as they discussed top secret plans about the bombing campaign of Yemen, one in which 53 people were slaughtered.
Little did they know, national security advisor Mike Waltz had invited in the Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to witness the whole thing. After taking care of some admin, the members began discussing the Suez Canal - a vital waterway under siege by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels that a huge amount of world trade passes through.
One user, identified by the name "JD VANCE", drew attention to the fact that more European trade passes through the canal than US trade. Later, discussing Europe, the JD Vance account added: "I just hate bailing Europe out again", which was echoed by Pete Hegseth, who said: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC."
The clear breakdown in relations between some of the White House's most-powerful people and European allies will be "music to Putin's ears", according to European affairs expert Professor Anthony Glees.
"It's all music to Putin's ears. From vile Putin's point of view the EU is enemy No 1. It may not be doing as well as it once did but its massive success and, above all the huge increase in the standard of living it delivered, contributed directly to the collapse of the USSR and the dissolution of that evil empire in Eastern Europe which Putin is trying to reverse by force of arms. Ukraine is in the firing line right now," he said.
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"The EU is the largest single market of free people in the world. Trump can't have this. He wants the largest everything, including the market." The US President has repeatedly criticised allies in the West for not pulling their weight, especially in relation to the war in Ukraine.
Trump even claimed that the US had donated more aid to the war-battered country than the UK and Europe, which was later proven untrue. Earlier this month, Trump also threatened the EU with further trade restrictions and a potential 200% tariff as he described the European Union as "hostile and abusive".
And while the words between the US and Europe continue to sour, the president's rhetoric about Putin continues to improve, with him even describing him as a "friend".
After the bombshell messages came to the fore, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth denied he was involved in "texting war plans" to the same group chat a journalist was added to. Hegseth was one of the officials identified in the Signal encrypted messaging app, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
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Hegseth was questioned by reporters as he disembarked from a flight to Hawaii, and lashed Goldberg as a "deceitful" and "highly discredited" journalist, rather than facing up to the error. "So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes, time and time again", Hegseth said.
He then reeled off a number of Atlantic articles about Trump's Russia connections, and the "suckers and losers" comments about killed soldiers. "This is a guy who peddles in garbage. This is what he does," Hegseth added. He went on to applaud the efforts of his troops fighting Houthi rebels, and slammed Biden's own efforts in the warzone.
