Mark Landler
Appearances
The Headlines
The Scramble After a White House Showdown, and R.F.K. Jr.’s Measles Response
European leaders wrapped their arms around Zelensky. You know, it was his first chance after the very bad meeting with Donald Trump to see them in person. And so there were a lot of expressions of support. Mark Landler is the Times bureau chief in London. Keir Starmer had sort of two goals with this meeting. One was to prevent an irreparable rift in the transatlantic alliance.
The Headlines
The Scramble After a White House Showdown, and R.F.K. Jr.’s Measles Response
And in order to do that, he really wanted to demonstrate that Europe was ready to step up, both to spend more money on defense on its own, but also to put together what he's calling a coalition of the willing, which is a number of European countries
The Headlines
The Scramble After a White House Showdown, and R.F.K. Jr.’s Measles Response
that will take steps from deploying aircraft and troops to a peacekeeping force to, in a sense, secure any peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine agree to. And then he hopes that by doing that, he can go back to Donald Trump and say, we've stepped up, we're willing to pay a higher price, shoulder more of a burden. And so for that reason, we hope that you'll stay part of this effort.
The Headlines
The Scramble After a White House Showdown, and R.F.K. Jr.’s Measles Response
But the second purpose here is, was to get Europe ready should that transatlantic alliance really be finished. If this breach cannot be filled, if Donald Trump is really walking away, I think Starmer and Emmanuel Macron of France and other leaders recognize that Europe's going to have to be far more in charge of this effort, going to have to take charge of it.
The Headlines
The Scramble After a White House Showdown, and R.F.K. Jr.’s Measles Response
And so sort of two different efforts here. One, to keep the alliance together, but two, to start planning for a world in which that may not happen.