WSJ: Europe Drafts NATO Contingency Plan for US Withdrawal — Rutte Chairs UDCG Berlin; Magyar Nominated as Hungarian PM

The Wall Street Journal reported that European NATO members are actively drafting contingency plans for operating without US support — including promoting more Europeans to senior NATO command positions and replacing American military resources with European assets in areas such as logistics, air defense, and intelligence coordination. The plans represent the most concrete organizational response to Trump's escalating NATO threats, indicating European capitals no longer view US withdrawal as a theoretical risk but a scenario requiring operational planning. Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte chaired the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Berlin on April 15, welcoming additional allied aid packages for Ukraine and reiterating that European defense investment strengthened rather than replaced the transatlantic alliance. In Budapest, Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok formally nominated Péter Magyar as Prime Minister following Tisza's landslide election victory — a historic transition that removes NATO's most obstructionist internal voice and potentially shifts alliance consensus ahead of the Helsingborg Foreign Ministers summit (May 21–22).