Trump Sounds Ready to Stay Engaged in Europe, Danish Leader Says

Sara Sjolin and Oliver Crook
·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says a phone call with Donald Trump left her reassured that the US will continue to work with Europe on geopolitical issues after the president-elect takes office.

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Just off the phone with the incoming president, Frederiksen told Bloomberg TV’s Oliver Crook that Trump was “very direct” in acknowledging the need to solve global problems together and she had no feeling “about a US moving away from Europe or a US moving away from” its responsibility.

“It was primarily a discussion about security, defense,” Frederiksen said in the interview from a summit of European leaders in Budapest. “I am really transatlantic and I said, of course, to the president that I hope there will be no conflicts, no bad discussions between Europe and US because I think especially in this world of today, we really have to stick together.”

The Danish prime minister is among a small group of European leaders who have worked with Trump when he was previously president. She took office in 2019, in the middle of his first term.

“I know him already because we used to be colleagues back in time,” she said. “I said directly to Mr. Trump that I think he was right back in the days when he said, you have to do more on your own in Europe. You have to spend more money on defense and deterrence.”

Frederiksen, 46, has repeatedly called on Europe to increase defense spending to strengthen regional security, and significantly raised Denmark’s defense budget in recent years. The prime minister said she also discussed future defense strategies with Trump, as well as common concerns about closer cooperation between Iran, North Korea, Russia and “unfortunately also China.”

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