Trump ally has tough love for Europe

“I think the transatlantic relationship is really important, and I think Russia is a very serious threat,” said Elbridge Colby, a former senior Pentagon official who’s now being tipped for a major national security role — if former U.S. President Donald Trump is reelected in November. “I think it’s not as much of a threat as China, or as much of a threat as the Soviet Union was in 1953. But if Putin isn’t checked, he will have the incentive to push farther,” Colby told POLITICO…Colby makes clear the transatlantic relationship will only be healthy if Europe pulls its weight, takes on a greater defense burden, stops just “staging photo ops promising in the future that they’re going to spend more,” and gets on with “fielding credible combat forces that can assume the primary burden of the conventional defense of Europe against the Russians.”

Politico