[ad_1]
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would encourage NATO members who don’t meet defense spending guidelines to do “whatever they want” to Russia, saying they would be surprised if they didn’t comply with collective self-defense clauses. acknowledged. If re-elected, he will become the center of the alliance.
“Nato was broken before I came along,” Trump said at a rally in Conway, South Carolina. “I said, ‘Everyone will pay.’ They said, ‘If we don’t pay, will you protect us?’ I said, “Absolutely not.” They couldn’t believe the answer. ”
Trump said that “one of the presidents of a great nation” once asked him if he would defend his country “even if we didn’t pay” if Russia invaded.
“No, I’m not going to protect you,” Trump recalled telling the president. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want to do. You have to pay. You have to pay the bills.”
The White House late Saturday called Trump’s remarks “appallingly flat” and praised President Joe Biden’s efforts to strengthen the alliance.
“President Biden will restore our alliances and lead our “…Encouraging a brutal regime to invade its closest ally is horrifying and unrestrained, and it threatens America’s national security, global stability, and It puts our domestic economy at risk,” White House press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
At the heart of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the promise of collective defense: an attack on one member state is an attack on all states in the alliance. President Trump has long complained about how much other NATO members spend on defense compared to the United States, and has repeatedly threatened to pull the United States out of NATO. But his comments on Saturday most directly indicate that he has no intention of defending NATO allies from Russian attack if he is re-elected.
President Trump has long inaccurately explained how NATO funding works. NATO has a goal for its members to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense, but most countries fall short of that goal. However, this number is a guideline, not a binding contract, and does not create a “bill”. It is not that member states do not pay their share of the common budget for running the NATO organization.
As president, Trump has privately threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO multiple times, according to the New York Times. President Trump has described NATO as “outdated” and aligns himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wants to weaken the alliance. President Trump has long admired Putin, even going so far as to side with him over U.S. intelligence agencies over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Daniel Dale, Marshall Cohen, Veronica Stracqualursi, Jim Acosta and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link
