Donald Trump has claimed that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO members who do not pay their share of the alliance’s budget.
The former president made good on an alarming promise to rile up a cheering crowd that flooded the streets outside his rally in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday.
“No, I wouldn’t protect them; in fact, I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever they wanted,” he said to huge applause.
Trump claimed twice during his speech that he repeated his frequent claim that while president he forced European allies to pay more for defense.
‘NATO was ruined until I arrived. I said, “Everyone is going to pay.” They said, “Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us?” I said “absolutely not.” “They couldn’t believe the response,” he said.
Donald Trump has claimed that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO members who do not pay their share of the alliance’s budget.
He later added: “The president of a big country stood up and said, ‘If we don’t pay and we are attacked by Russia, will they protect us?’ I said you didn’t pay, are you in default? He said, ‘Yes, Let’s say that happened.”
‘No, I wouldn’t protect you, in fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever they want, you have to pay! You have to pay your bills.
The White House called Trump’s words “appalling and unhinged” and argued that they “promoted dangerous chaos.”
“President Biden has restored our alliances and made us stronger in the world because he knows that the first responsibility of every commander in chief is to keep the American people safe and be true to the values that unite us,” it said.
“Encouraging the invasion of our closest allies by murderous regimes is egregious and unhinged, and endangers American national security, global stability, and our domestic economy.
“Instead of calling for wars and promoting unhinged chaos, President Biden will continue to strengthen American leadership and defend our national security interests, not against them.”
Trump often claimed that he single-handedly convinced NATO members to contribute more, but there is no record of this exchange taking place.
But NATO funding also doesn’t work as Trump often claims it does, and his boasts does not fit with reality.
No NATO member fails to pay its share of the alliance’s $3 billion common budget, which is based on GDP and of which the United States pays 16 percent.
In the past, Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and even sided with him when it came to U.S. intelligence agencies when Putin denied interfering in the 2016 election.
Trump claimed twice during his speech that he repeated his frequent claim that while president he forced European allies to pay more for defense.
That aside, NATO members in 2014—before Trump even entered the presidential race—pledged to increase their defense spending.
A target of 2 percent of GDP was set by 2024, in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and defense spending by NATO’s 29 countries has risen steadily.
This plan was created long before Trump had any influence over NATO countries, but he took credit for it dozens of times over the past eight years.
Trump, during a town hall in New Hampshire last month, also made the same wildly incorrect claim, arguing that NATO was “taking advantage” of the United States.
‘European countries took advantage of… I want to use the S-word, but I don’t want to because I see some young, very good-looking boys in the audience, and I assume they are watching on television,’ he said.
‘But they took advantage of us in trade, and then they took advantage of us in our military protection.
‘Of the 28 countries at that time, only eight countries were paid. We were paying the difference.
Trump speaks at a “Get Out the Vote” rally in Conway, South Carolina
‘And I went towards them. I told him: “if you don’t pay, we are not going to protect you.” And they said, “Do you mean that?” I said, “I’m serious.” And the next day, billions of dollars poured into NATO.”
Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO several times while president, calling it “obsolete” and a drain on American resources.
This is despite the fact that the roughly $500 million the United States pays in direct financing is dwarfed by the $842 billion defense budget.
Congress was so concerned that Trump could unilaterally withdraw from NATO if he won a second term that it passed a law in December requiring the president to win a two-thirds majority of the Senate to do so.
Trump also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, even siding with him regarding U.S. intelligence agencies when Putin denied interfering in the 2016 election.
Putin denied having any interest in attacking NATO countries, such as Poland and the Baltic states, in his controversial interview with Tucker Carlson.
‘Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply have no interest. It’s absolutely out of the question,” she stated.
Putin denied having any interest in attacking NATO countries, such as Poland and the Baltic states, in his controversial interview with Tucker Carlson.
French soldiers take part in a major drill as part of NATO’s “enhanced forward presence” (EFP) deployment to Poland and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2022.
Trump’s claim that he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies had disturbing parallels to when he asked Russian hackers to find emails from Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the US presidential election.
‘Russia, if you’re listening. I hope they can find the 30,000 missing emails,” she said in July 2016 during the election campaign.
Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow appeared to heed the call, targeting Clinton’s personal office and attacking more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts.
This was according to a grand jury indictment that charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking into Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party as part of a broad Kremlin conspiracy to meddle in the election.