President Trump says he will ‘encourage’ Russia to attack NATO allies who don’t pay their bills

President Donald Trump said he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO members that don’t pay their bills as part of the Western military alliance.

Speaking at Saturday’s rally, he said he had previously told leaders he would not protect countries that were in arrears and would “encourage” the aggressors to “do whatever they want.” .

NATO members pledge to defend any country in the bloc that is attacked.

The White House criticized the comments as “appalling and out of the ordinary.”

Addressing a crowd at a rally in South Carolina, Trump said he made the remarks about Russia during a meeting with leaders of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries.

He recalled presenting a hypothetical situation in which the leader of a “great power” had failed to meet its financial obligations within NATO and was under attack from Moscow.

Trump said he reprimanded the leader because he asked whether the United States would support his country in that scenario.

“I said, ‘Aren’t you paying? Are you delinquent?’…’No, I’m not going to protect you. I’d rather encourage you to do whatever they want. You’re not paying. It has to be.”

A White House spokesperson said the former president was “encouraging a brutal regime to invade its closest allies” and called the remarks “appalling and unabashed.”

The statement further said it “jeopardizes the national security of the United States, global stability, and the domestic economy.”

Mr. Trump, the front-runner to run again as the Republican candidate in this year’s U.S. presidential election, has long criticized NATO and its excessive financial burden on the United States to guarantee the defense of 30 other countries.

Russia will begin a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after Trump leaves office. Since then, he has lamented the amount of U.S. transfers to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.

The US has provided more financial aid to Ukraine than any other country, totaling more than $44bn (£34bn) since the invasion in 2022, according to December White House figures. ing.

But Congressional Republicans have blocked all new funding since the beginning of the year and called for tough measures to restrict immigration into the U.S. from the southern border, rejecting an amended bill introduced earlier this week.

Trump celebrated the rejection at a rally Saturday, calling President Biden’s proposal “disastrous.”