News blog about US politics
US Vice President: Europe is “sabotaging” itself
Updated February 17, 2026 – 11:57 p.mReading time: 23 minutes
US Vice President Vance accuses Europe of getting in its own way. An incident occurs in Washington. All developments in the news blog.
In the debate about estrangement between the United States and Europe, US Vice President JD Vance emphasized that, in his view, the states across the Atlantic were doing themselves a lot of harm. “It’s not that we don’t respect our allies. It’s more that they often sabotage themselves,” he said in an interview with US broadcaster “Fox News”. Vance asserted that the US government wants a successful Europe with strong economic performance.
Addressing issues between both sides of the Atlantic, Vance said it’s not because the U.S. doesn’t “like” Europe. However, it took pressure from Donald Trump’s government to get the NATO allies to increase their defense spending and invest in border protection to curb the influx of migrants. “So we’ve made great progress, but frankly we want a lot more from our European allies,” Vance continued.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled a multi-billion dollar defense industry plan that will strengthen Canada’s military and reduce dependence on the United States. Canada has “relied too much on our geography and others” to protect the country, Carney said in a speech referring to the neighboring country. “This has created a level of vulnerability we can no longer afford and dependencies we can no longer sustain,” he added.
Carney’s office said the new defense strategy would provide over half a trillion Canadian dollars (around 308 billion euros) “for the security, economic prosperity and sovereignty of Canada.” $180 billion would go to defense procurement and $290 billion to defense-related public investments over the next decade. The new strategy is also expected to create 125,000 high-paying jobs.
