He added: “If they fulfil their obligations to us, the answer is yes”.
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In the interview, Trump also addressed the failed military coup in Turkey, stating that he would not criticize the country for cracking down on political opponents and restricting civil liberties, according to The Sacramento Bee.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreement was crystal clear: “We defend each other”. Numerous member nations don’t fulfill their own commitment to spend 2 percent of their Gross National Product on defense.
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, in an interview with the Daily Beast, accused The New York Times of misquoting Trump, but a transcript posted by the Times showed that the quotes were accurate. As president, would he come to their aid? “Yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, ‘Congratulations, you will be defending yourself'”. “But the comments that are attributed to him in the New York Times, I do find troubling”.
Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and a leader of the “Never Trump” faction in the party, said, “Our friends should draw strength and our adversaries should take pause from this simple fact: Americans keep our word”. And it is reasonable to cast a critical and skeptical eye on new military commitments to make sure they further USA interests and have been well thought-out. “Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they’re supposed to make”, he said in reference to the 2 per cent GDP benchmark for defence spending, which is routinely not observed by most of the bloc’s members. That’s a big thing. You can’t say forget that.
Trump has repeatedly made the case that most of NATO’s 28-member countries are not making the requisite financial contributions for their common defense, and he’s said in the past that “the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves”. The qualification is that the nation under attack must have fulfilled its “obligations to us”.
Trump said scrapping the military alliance is part of his “America first” approach to foreign policy. “If we decide we have to defend the United States, we can always deploy” from America itself, he suggested, seemingly embracing the discredited concept of a Fortress America.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign was quick to pounce on Trump’s statements.
Although the militaries of all three Baltic states are also tiny, they have long committed troops to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo as a way to demonstrate that they are willing to make sacrifices for the common good.
Americans should remember, since Trump apparently doesn’t, that Article 5 was invoked for the first time after the September 11 terror attacks on America.
“Over the course of this campaign, Trump has displayed a weird and occasionally obsequious fascination with Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin”.
Trump’s comments, however, have the potential to stoke fresh concerns about the alliance’s unity, particularly as it faces a new Cold War with Russian Federation.
“I think the most charitable interpretation is he already sees himself engaged in negotiation with these (NATO allies) – that there hasn’t been a fair burden-sharing”, said John Hannah, a former adviser in George W. Bush White House and now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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NBC News reports that some fear were Trump elected, his waffling on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would embolden Russian president Vladimir Putin to intimidate Baltic allies.
