Trump’s Russia Posture Raises Questions for Europe

White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia is leaving her role less than a week after taking it, as former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves warns Europe must decide how to respond to Washington’s changing approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A White House official confirmed to AFP that Zacharia was “transitioning” out of the role. Several US media outlets, including The New York Times, reported that the White House had fired her. US President Donald Trump denied dismissing her, saying she had been “brutalized by the media.” He said he’d encouraged her minutes earlier to reconsider: “You don't have to do this if you don't want to.”

A brief tenure under scrutiny

Zacharia’s first White House briefing lasted less than 15 minutes. It took place on Tuesday. She listed what she described as Trump’s achievements and took three questions. Her departure followed criticism of the briefing and scrutiny of her legal credentials.

While working as a commentator for conservative outlets including Fox News and Newsmax, Zacharia had described herself as a lawyer. She holds a law degree from a California university but hadn’t passed the bar exam, which generally is required to practise law in the United States.

On Thursday, Zacharia acknowledged she hadn’t passed the exam. She told Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close Trump ally: “It was never my intent to go into the practice of law.” In an interview Thursday with the pro-Trump outlet Real America's Voice, she said she’d registered for the exam but became “distracted and overwhelmed” by plans to move to China with her husband. She also said “many people in the field” had told her she could “label myself a lawyer” because she had a law degree.

Europe’s response to Washington and Moscow

Ilves assessed Washington’s changing approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine and what it means for European security. He argued that domestic electoral calculations partly shaped the Trump administration’s apparent rapprochement with Moscow.

Ilves said Europe faced questions about whether it could build political unity, strategic independence and military capabilities to defend its interests. “If there's any time for Europe to begin to act as Europe and not as being strictly self-interested, then this is the time for it,” he said.

He challenged the assumption that Washington retains overwhelming leverage over Kyiv. Europe’s growing financial commitment to Ukrainian defence, he said, and possible domestic political costs for the United States if it withdraws intelligence support both complicate that assumption.

Nationalist movements, competing security priorities and differing attitudes toward Russia, he said, fragment Europe and weaken its capacity for collective action. “If we don't take that issue seriously,” he warned, “I fear we will have far more vociferous tendencies within the European Union between those that take the security side of this seriously and those countries or leaders that will block progress simply for their domestic audiences.”

Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries

A Kyiv Independent video featuring historian and journalist Anne Applebaum asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin was pushing Trump to stop Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Applebaum argued the attacks were putting real pressure on Moscow. Trump’s approach, she said, risked giving Russia more time to continue its war against Ukraine. The fetched page provided no further transcript or details of her remarks.