US President Donald Trump on Thursday cast doubt on his willingness to defend Washington’s NATO allies, saying that he would not do so if they are not paying enough for their own defense.
Trump said he had been of this view for years and shared it with NATO allies during his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021. Those efforts prompted more spending from other members of the 75-year-old transatlantic alliance, he said, but that “even now, it’s not enough.”
“They should be paying more,” he added.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Trump also expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the US’ defense if the country were attacked.
“You know the biggest problem I have with NATO? I really, I mean, I know the guys very well. They’re friends of mine, but if the United States was in trouble, and we called them, we said, ‘We got a problem, France. We got a problem, couple of others I won’t mention.’ Do you think they’re going to come and protect us? They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure,” he said.
However, the US’ NATO allies did just that following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, when Article 5 was invoked, leading to NATO’s largest operation in Afghanistan. France’s military participated in the operation.
“We are loyal and faithful allies,” French President Emmanuel Macron responded on Thursday, expressing “respect and friendship” toward US leaders.
“I think we’re entitled to expect the same,” he said.
Macron invoked “centuries-old history,” namechecking the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, who was a major general in the US’ Continental Army — the first official US army — during the US Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, and general John Pershing, commander of the US army in France during World War I.
Macron added that a few days ago, he met American World War II veterans who landed on Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
France and the US “have always been there for each other,” he said.
Asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he was making it US policy that the US would not defend NATO countries that do not meet military spending targets, Trump said: “Well, I think it’s common sense, right? If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”
Trump said he viewed NATO as “potentially good” and seemed to suggest the US commitment to NATO might be leveraged in his trade disputes as he seeks to target what he says are unfair trade policies with other nations, including the EU.
“I view NATO as potentially good, but you’ve got to get, you’ve got to get some good thinking in NATO. It’s very unfair, what’s been happening,” Trump said. “Until I came along, we were paying close to 100 percent of NATO. So think of it, we’re paying 100 percent of their military, and they’re screwing us on trade.”
Trump’s choice for NATO ambassador Matt Whitaker at his US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday said that the US commitment to the NATO alliance and specifically Article 5 “will be ironclad.”
Last year, then-NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said a record 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations had hit the military alliance’s defense spending target.
Trump has taken credit for countries meeting those targets because of his threats, and Stoltenberg himself has said Trump was responsible for getting other nations to increase their spending.
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