A US security blunder, in which a journalist was added to a supposedly top secret chat group of senior White House officials, speaks volumes to the outside world about how the Trump administration works – but perhaps most notably that what JD Vance, Pete Hegseth and others say in public, they say in private too.
Friends and foes alike will not have failed to notice the contempt expressed by Vance for Europe in the leaked messages. It will merely confirm suspicions that the US leadership can no longer be trusted, and the instinct now for many countries must be to try to forge away from the old ally.
