Trump’s European nuclear weapons plan risks backfiring

Published June 4, 2026 6:00am ET



Joining NATO talks in late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the alliance’s status quo was not working. “There’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there have historically been,” Rubio told reporters. Still, he argued that he was a “strong supporter” of NATO, calling it an important enabler of U.S. national security. 

The Europeans are certainly taking notice.

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