When he actually addressed the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting - a format originally set up and chaired by his predecessor Lloyd Austin, but now led for the first time by the UK Defence Secretary John Healey - Mr Hegseth's European remarks were slightly softer, saying the US could no longer be "primarily focused on the security of Europe".
The new US president says he is determined to negotiate a peace deal with the Kremlin, but Ukraine and its European allies are fearful that a failure to prioritise Ukrainian demands will only embolden Moscow and set the stage for Russia to launch a wider European war within a few years.
Mr Trump has already unilaterally spoken to Vladimir Putin by phone, called Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator", and is trying to force Kyiv to sign away hundreds of billions of dollars worth of its natural resources as a kind of payback for past US military support - which had been freely given by Joe Biden to fight Russia's war.
Yet the stark message that European allies and Canada must shoulder a far greater burden of responsibility for their own security and to support Ukraine rather than rely on America - Europe cannot turn "Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker" was a phrase Mr Hegseth used when speaking subsequently with the media - was heard loud and clear.
There were extraordinary reversals in US policy towards Ukraine, including a claim that it is "unrealistic" to believe Kyiv can recapture all its territory from Russia, a ruling out of NATO membership as part of any ceasefire deal with Moscow and saying that US forces would not be deployed on the ground to deter future Russian attacks following a peace deal.
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