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The Biden administration immediately condemned the remarks, calling them “appalling and out of character.”
President Trump has long decried the notion that European countries are freeloading on the US military budget. cThe weekend accusations were provocative even by President Trump’s standards.
This also caused confusion for some stakeholders. As he claimed, no one, including a former senior adviser to the president, could recall him ever saying such a thing to a fellow head of state.
A 25-second excerpt of President Trump’s Saturday night speech was used by diplomats on Sunday to clarify the meaning of the remarks by the former president, who repeatedly criticized the alliance during his time in office and was often the most provocative about NATO ever in speeches. As I analyzed it, it echoed across the earth. He praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hours earlier, President Trump had vowed to effectively end U.S. aid to foreign countries in another salvo aimed at another pillar of U.S. foreign policy. Economic development aid and military aid to foreign countries has been a mainstay of Democratic and Republican administrations for decades, in part to alleviate suffering abroad and strengthen U.S. national security, but repayments have been slow. It will be replaced with a necessary loan program, President Trump wrote. He said this in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Never again should we give money without expecting something in return or with no ‘conditions’ attached,” Trump said in a capitalized post. Any loan must be repaid immediately if the recipient “someday turns against us or obtains large sums of money in the future,” he wrote.
Immediate reactions from European leaders and diplomats ranged from anger to exhausted resignation.
“Unfortunately, President Trump is not surprised,” Marko Mikkelson, chairman of the Estonian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in a text message. “The current presidential campaign only confirms that he has not changed his reckless attitude towards his allies. So, unfortunately, he is very convenient for Putin’s Russia, which is at war with the West. It has become a good tool.”
Some European policymakers said Trump’s comments posed a security threat to the continent. A senior German lawmaker who was Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy for foreign policy wrote that Europe needs to prepare to become self-reliant.
“Everyone should watch this video of President Trump and understand that Europe may soon have no choice but to defend itself,” Norbert Roetgen wrote on his Facebook page. “We must manage this because anything else would be surrender and self-abandonment!”
Trump’s remarks were part of his standard campaign speech against NATO allies who are not honoring their 2006 pledge to eventually raise military spending levels to 2% of their gross domestic product. . In 2018, President Trump made harsh comments suggesting the United States might not follow through on its promise to protect other alliance members from attack unless they pay more money. It rocked a summit of NATO allies in Brussels.
Several diplomats who attended the 2018 summit, including Trump’s senior advisers, said that Trump: The threat at the time was much milder than what he made in his speech on Saturday.
John Bolton, who was President Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and is now a vocal critic of his former boss, said that President Trump is in fact pursuing the same goal that multiple administrations over the past few decades have pursued. He said he has been actively pressuring NATO members to increase military spending. “But he said nothing about not protecting anyone from Russia,” Bolton said in an interview.
As for the veracity of the anecdote, Bolton said Trump “probably has a lot of things put together in his head,” adding: “He’s making up these conversations.”
“But even if the conversation was a fabrication, I think he believes it,” Bolton said. In a new edition of his 2020 memoir, Bolton argues that Trump would likely seek to withdraw from NATO if elected to a second term.
“He wanted an excuse to leave, but the rest of us wanted our NATO allies to spend more, including fulfilling their commitments, because it’s for themselves and NATO “This is because it strengthens the system,” Bolton said. “This is a case where you have to take him literally.”
Trump’s anger over delays in European defense spending was a throwback to his turbulent term in office, when Europeans faced questions about whether the United States would protect them if they were attacked by Russia.
At the time, many European policymakers ultimately concluded that Trump’s public statements were largely abusive, in part because the Trump administration’s national security policymakers generally came from the Republican establishment. It was judged. Mr. Bolton and then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, longtime Russia hawks, embraced some of Mr. Trump’s most unconventional defense initiatives.
However, with President Trump’s rants, It may have had some influence in parallel with the new and disastrous war on the European continent.. NATO countries have significantly increased defense spending since 2016, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 will further spur that investment. Of the six NATO countries that border Russia, only Norway remains below the alliance’s annual defense target of 2% of gross domestic product. It is expected to reach that level by 2026.
When President Biden took office, he devoted much of his energy to foreign policy efforts to repair the transatlantic divide that emerged from the Trump era. Even before Ukraine was attacked, Biden had succeeded in rallying Europeans to support Kiev. Just days after the invasion, Germany, President Trump’s main punching bag in Europe, reversed course by abandoning decades of dependence on Russian gas and pledging to invest more aggressively in its military.
Still, U.S. policymakers and experts warn that Biden’s support for European allies masks a broader trend of growing U.S. dissatisfaction with its central role in supporting Europe’s defenses. ing. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are among a dwindling generation of American leaders who came of age during the Cold War, and younger leaders on both sides of the aisle who have been involved in the post-World War II rebuilding of Europe and the Soviet Union. less shaped by the legacy of competition with Even before Trump took office, President Barack Obama also complained, albeit more politely, about European defense spending.
The Republicans’ abandonment of Ukraine, which has accelerated in recent months, is the latest warning sign, policymakers say. Biden’s $61 billion request for aid to Ukraine has stalled in Congress in recent months, even as the country’s military is running out of front-line artillery and basic equipment.
Congress has taken steps to make it harder for future U.S. presidents to withdraw from NATO, but Washington’s formal alliance commitment is less important than the White House’s willingness to back up that commitment with military action. Maybe not, experts say.
NATO members’ commitment under Article 5 to come to each other’s aid in the event of attack is not a formal legal requirement, so even if the United States does not formally close its domestic missions, Trump Under a second term, the alliance could become worthless. The glass-walled NATO headquarters in Brussels.
At the same time, all recent investments in European security remain heavily dependent on Washington’s military umbrella. And some countries, including Germany, have not been able to increase spending as quickly as leaders initially promised in the wake of Russia’s attack on Kiev.
Many European policymakers said Sunday that Trump’s comments were just another reminder that Europe needs to reduce its dependence on the United States.
Some policymakers in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries that border Russia said they were accustomed to President Trump’s four years of attacks on the alliance and were not immediately swayed by his latest comments. Ta.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevich, who attended the 2018 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, said, “Money is not the thing to worry about,” and President Trump appears to have been referring to this.
He pointed out that Latvia spends 2.4% of its gross domestic product on defense, which is significantly higher than NATO commitments. “The important thing is that regardless of who wins in the United States, Europe must spend more to strengthen defense, capabilities and defense production. It is in our vital interests.” .
Sergei Lagodinsky, a German member of the European Parliament and a member of the hawkish Green Party, said Trump had no “values, no international expertise, a pure transactional mindset” and a defense official. said Sergei Lagodinsky, one of the country’s leading voices calling for strengthening. investment. “So this is a reminder to us. We need to be more serious about our abilities.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who was in Washington recently on a trip that included talks with U.S. conservatives, said the alliance “remains ready and able to defend all our allies.” Stated. Any attack on NATO will be met with a united and strong response. ”
But Stoltenberg acknowledged the harm in questioning the right to collective self-defense. “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines the overall security of our country, including the United States, and puts American and European soldiers at further risk,” he said in a prepared statement.
“No matter who wins the presidential election, we expect the United States to remain a strong and committed NATO ally.”
In Washington, several Republicans tried to defend the party’s standard-bearer, but several political leaders expressed regret at Trump’s speech. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a television interview that he believes President Trump is just “telling a story.”
“Mr. Trump is not a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He doesn’t speak like a traditional politician. And we’ve already been through this situation,” Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” ” he said.
“He talked about how he used leverage to get people into NATO and get them more active,” Rubio said. “Nearly every American president, at some point or another, has complained about other NATO members not doing enough. Trump is the first to express it in these terms. is.”
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is running against Trump in the Republican primary, says if elected president she will honor America’s commitment to NATO and never side with “thugs.” he said. In an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” he said, “I would never stand by someone who invaded a country and invaded it and caused 500,000 people to die or be injured because of Putin.” .
Warwick and Birnbaum reported from Washington, and Rauhala from Brussels. Mariana Alfaro in Washington contributed to this report.
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