Assertions by former President Donald Trump that he would encourage Russian attacks against NATO member states that didn’t “pay” were met with swift rebuke from both sides of the aisle Sunday.
Trump, during a Saturday rally in South Carolina, claimed that during his administration he’d informed a NATO nation’s leader he wouldn’t move to defend them should they be attacked by Russia and if they hadn’t paid enough of their GDP for protection.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,” Trump said to the applause of his audience.
The 45th President’s comments were met with swift backlash from both the left and the right.
Trump’s chief political rival in the 2024 race, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, defended the long-standing treaty alliance and pointed out that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is not the sort of world leader the U.S. should to stand beside. While Putin hasn’t been wary about attacking his neighbors, Haley said, he has never attempted to invade a NATO state.
“NATO has been a success story for the last 75 years. But what bothers me about this is, don’t take the side of a thug who kills his opponents. Don’t take the side of someone who has gone in and invaded a country and half a million people have died or been wounded because of Putin. Don’t take the side of someone who continues to lie. I dealt with Russia every day. The last thing we ever want to do is side with Russia,” Haley told CBS.
An attack on any of NATO’s 31 member states would trigger the treaty’s Article 5, which states that an attack on any member country will be treated as an attack on all alliance…
Read the full article here
