Trump’s top team rips into America’s European allies – saying they ‘loathe’ having to ‘bail out’ the ‘pathetic free-loaders’: Astonishing text messages are leaked in security shambles that saw journalist added to war plans group

Bombshell leaked messages have revealed the level of contempt some of Donald Trump’s key cabinet members feel for their ‘free-loading’ European allies.

Since Trump returned to the White House, visible gaps have opened up in the relationship between Europe and the United States – with the future of Ukraine a particular bone of contention. 

But secret exchanges on the messaging app Signal, mistakenly sent to the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg, show the depth of the hostility on the US side. 

Goldberg revealed that Trump’s national security team added him to their group chat, which contains a large volume of highly classified information, and published details of the conversation on Monday.

The chat appears to have served as a virtual war room for some of the top players in the Trump White House, including Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, national security advisor Mike Waltz and Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles. 

The conversation was initially centred around the military strikes against Houthi strongholds in Yemen, which started after the Houthis threatened to begin targeting ‘Israeli’ ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip.

In the chats, the user identified as Vice President JD Vance expresses concerns about the strikes but ultimately agrees to go along with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s plan – before adding ‘I just hate bailing Europe out again.’

Hegseth responds: ‘I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.’ 

Now Waltz is facing the sack over the saga – as he’s believed to have been the official who ‘added the editor-in-chief to the group’.

One source told Politico: ‘Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f***ing idiot.’ 

According to The Atlantic editor-in-chief Goldberg, the messages featured information that could easily have been weaponised by enemies of the United States to harm their personnel and assets. 

Goldberg wrote: ‘The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. 

‘What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.’ 

The chats were confirmed as legitimate by the US government but a White House spokesperson said it was a ‘demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials’. 

Asked by about the leaked messages, the US President on Monday told reporters at the White House that he hadn’t seen The Atlantic story revealing the details of the group chat.

Looking puzzled, Trump said: ‘I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. It’s to me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business.’

Former Democratic Party presidential candidate and long term Trump adversary Hillary Clinton responded to news of the leaked messages on X, saying ‘You have got to be kidding me’. 

However, the exchanges do show some interesting differences of opinion between some of the best-known figures in the current administration.

In the exchanges, the user identified as ‘JD Vance’ wrote that ‘Andy baker for VP’ was representing him.

That is presumably a reference to Andrew Baker, a national security advisor who has played a key role in shaping Vance’s foreign policy positions, especially his opposition to US aid to Ukraine and his skepticism of NATO.  

Messages from the Vance account advise against a military strike in Yemen. 

‘Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake,’ the Vance user stated to the group. 

‘There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message,’ the Vance user continued.

The military strike against the Houthis, the team argued, was necessary to keep shipping lanes open on the Red Sea, as the insurgents were targeting ships. 

Vance’s account expressed concerns about the timing of the proposed operation, warning of oil prices spiking as a result.

‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,’ he wrote. ‘There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.’

The Vance user said that he would remain publicly silent about his concerns, but expressed them to the team.

‘I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc,’ he said.

Vance’s communications director William Martin said the vice president remained aligned with Trump’s decision, but wanted to make sure he was properly briefed by his advisors.

‘The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations,’ he said in a statement. 

‘Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.’

In the chat, the Hegseth user said he understood Vance’s concerns and urged him to raise them with the president, but argued for immediate action.

‘We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should,’ he wrote.

The Walz user also said the United States would have to act and reminded Vance that ‘Per the president’s request we are working with DOD and State to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans.’

‘If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,’ the Vance user replied.

The SM user, identified in the article as Trump’s advisor Steve Miller, reminded the group about the president’s goal.

‘As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return,’ he wrote.

Trump ultimately ordered the strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen over the weekend from his club at Mar-a-Lago in a successful mission.

The relationship between Trump and his European counterparts has been one of wariness and conflict even before the real estate mogul was sworn in as the 47th president. 

The US leader’s team told European officials in December that the bloc would have to more than double its spending target of two per cent – a target which over a quarter of its members were on course to fail to meet.

Trump called for European nations to up their military budgets to 5 per cent of GDP – far higher than the US’s own defence spending.

The two-term president also said in February 2024 that he would encourage Russia to do ‘whatever the hell they want’ with any of the 32 NATO member states who failed to meet such ambitious defence spending targets.   

However, even back in Mr Trump’s first term there were multiple signs that the real estate mogul was ready to resort to more drastic measures. 

Senior officials in the first Trump administration said that their boss spoke numerous times in private over the course of 2018 about his desire to withdraw from NATO, The New York Times reported. 

While he has so far avoided actively calling for the US to exit the North Atlantic alliance, that position is one favoured by several close members of his team including DOGE head honcho Elon Musk and Utah senator Mike Lee. 

Trump’s vice president JD Vance had some European ministers in tears back in February after he argued that free speech and democratic institutions were being eroded across the continent in an address to the Munich Security Conference.

He accused European politicians of forcing people to shut down social media accounts and urged leaders to do more to stem illegal immigration.

Vance reserved particular scorn for the UK, citing the case of a British man arrested after praying near an abortion clinic.

‘Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making,’ he said.

‘If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.’

President Trump’s brinkmanship over the Ukraine-Russia conflict has also been a source of consternation for European leaders.

After initially claiming that he would stop the war on his first day in office, that timeline was quickly extended – with tempers flairing on several occasions. 

Last month Trump called Zelensky a ‘dictator’ when speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida after talks between the US and Ukrainian president broke down following Trump’s insistence on including mineral rights in any prospective deal – but without the promise of a security guarantee for Ukraine.

But only a week later, when asked about that comment, Trump glibly told reporters in the Oval Office: ‘Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question.’ 

However, things took an even more calamitous turn for the worse following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s dramatic bust-up with Vance and Trump in the Oval Office. 

While European leaders have sought to mend bridges between the two sides, there is no question that this in the most fractured the Euro-US alliance has been in decades.