The Free Ride Is Over: America Must Cut Europe Loose

The Free Ride Is Over: America Must Cut Europe Loose

For 80 years, Europe has played a clever game—letting the United States shoulder the burden of its defense while it pours money into social programs, expansive welfare states, and nationalized healthcare. Germany can afford cradle-to-grave benefits, not because of superior governance, but because it offloads the cost of its military onto American taxpayers. That era is coming to an end.

President Donald Trump has made it clear: the U.S. will no longer be Europe’s piggy bank. He has signaled his intent to pull 20,000 troops out of Europe, a move that has sent European leaders into a panic. They call it “abandonment.” But let’s be clear—this isn’t abandonment. It’s accountability. If these nations want to dictate foreign policy, if they want to push for endless war in Ukraine while America seeks peace, then they can damn well pay for it themselves.

The United States has dumped over $100 billion into Ukraine, fueling a war that serves European interests far more than American ones. While Trump is pushing for a peace deal, Germany, France, and the UK want the war to drag on. Why? Because they aren’t paying for it. America is. Our tax dollars arm Ukraine while Europe keeps its hands clean, focusing on economic stability and domestic programs. Meanwhile, let’s be honest about what Ukraine has become. The media sells the myth of a plucky democracy standing against tyranny, but the reality is far darker. Volodymyr Zelensky is not a democratic leader—he is a dictator in all but name. He has banned opposition parties, outlawing his political rivals under the guise of “wartime security.” He has seized control of the media, ensuring only state-approved propaganda reaches the Ukrainian people. He has jailed dissenters and political critics, including religious leaders, violating every supposed democratic principle he claims to uphold. He continues to demand endless money from the U.S., refusing to provide transparency on where it goes. And yet, American leaders continue to treat him as some kind of heroic figure. The reality? He is an ungrateful warlord who showed up to the White House in a green military sweatsuit, disrespecting the very country that bankrolls his survival. Every American leader in history has worn a suit and tie when addressing foreign allies. But Zelensky? He can’t even put on a jacket to show basic respect. That should tell us everything we need to know.

Western media paints Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014 as an unprovoked invasion. The truth is far more complex. The roots of the Crimea crisis lie in Ukraine’s internal political turmoil. In 2014, Ukraine’s pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in a Western-backed coup known as the Euromaidan Revolution. Leaked phone calls revealed U.S. officials, including Victoria Nuland, actively selecting Ukraine’s new government. This sudden shift toward a pro-Western regime alarmed Russia, especially given Crimea’s strategic importance as the home of the Sevastopol Naval Base, which hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Losing Crimea to a NATO-aligned Ukraine was an unacceptable security risk.

Contrary to the “invasion” narrative, Crimea held a referendum on March 16, 2014, in which over 96% of voters supported joining Russia. Moscow claimed it was acting in defense of ethnic Russians and historical ties to Crimea. Yes, Russian troops were present in Crimea, but there was no full-scale war. Not a single shot was fired, and Ukraine’s own military largely surrendered without resistance. If this was an “invasion,” it was the quietest in modern history.

While the West champions Ukraine’s sovereignty, it conveniently ignores Kyiv’s refusal to respect the sovereignty of its own regions. In 2022, Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held referendums on joining Russia. The reported results showed overwhelming support for annexation: Donetsk with 99.23% and Luhansk with 98.42%. Ukraine, however, dismissed the results outright and continued military operations in these regions instead of negotiating with their people. The Ukrainian government claimed the votes were coerced, but that didn’t stop them from sending artillery and airstrikes into civilian areas in Donbas for years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The United States’ involvement in Ukraine’s internal affairs is deeper than commonly acknowledged. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the CIA initiated covert paramilitary training programs for Ukrainian special forces, essentially preparing them for this war. From the start, this war was never about democracy—it was about power, money, and geopolitical chess. But Ukraine is just one piece of the larger puzzle—the United States’ addiction to war and military intervention. The U.S. defense budget for 2024 is over $880 billion—more than the next ten countries combined. The U.S. has over 750 military bases in more than 80 countries worldwide. We have over 100,000 troops in Europe, including permanent deployments in Germany, the UK, Italy, and Poland. NATO countries are supposed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense, but most don’t—because they know the U.S. will cover for them.

This military spending isn’t about “defense.” It’s about propping up the globalist war machine that keeps American taxpayers funding wars while their own country falls apart. Think about it: Germany has universal healthcare, free college, and generous welfare programs. America has crumbling infrastructure, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and veterans sleeping on the streets. Why? Because Germany doesn’t have to pay for its own defense. We do. For decades, the United States has been caught in an endless cycle of war—Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and now Ukraine. Each time, we’re told it’s about “freedom” and “democracy,” but the truth is it’s about money, power, and control.

War is profitable. Defense contractors rake in billions while the American people foot the bill. The politicians who push these wars are funded by the same companies that profit from them. It’s a racket, and Ukraine is just the latest excuse to keep it going. The post-World War II security arrangement was built for a different time. The Soviet Union is gone, yet NATO has expanded rather than dissolved. Europe has had 80 years to build a military capable of defending itself, but why would it? As long as America keeps footing the bill, there’s no incentive to step up.

That’s over. The U.S. should no longer bankroll European security while its own borders remain open, its infrastructure crumbles, and its citizens struggle under massive debt. If European nations want to continue pushing for war, let them fund it. If they want military protection, let them provide it. America is not Europe’s insurance policy. It’s time for Europe to take responsibility for its own survival.

The Newett Standard does not take one side or the other. We analyze policy and fact, following the truth where it leads. While the left claims to champion universal healthcare and social programs, it cannot reconcile these ideals with supporting a war machine that drains the nation’s resources to fund endless conflicts abroad and militarily support dozens of modern countries that should be defending themselves. If America is to have a serious conversation about national priorities, it cannot ignore the glaring contradiction at the heart of its military policy.