Donald Trump’s remarks in a New York Times interview that he would only defend the Baltic states against a Russian invasion if they “have fulfilled their obligations to us” leaves open the question of whether under a President Trump the United States would honor its Article V commitment to treat an attack against one North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member as an attack against all.
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Obama went on to say that many of Trump’s most controversial proposals, like banning Muslims from entering the US, would actually make the nation, and world, less safe and is “ultimately helping do (ISIS’s) work”.
Trump triggered global alarm this week with his comments about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Trump told the New York Times, “I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, ‘Congratulations, you will be defending yourself'”.
Trump has repeatedly indicated that the United States might not come to the defense of a NATO ally – a treaty obligation – if they were not pulling their weight. “We might not abide by the central tenant of the most important alliance in the history of the world, ‘” Obama told the network. By the way, while the Secret Service is investigating the comments about executing Clinton, all the Trump campaign had to say was that it “does not agree with those statements”.
On “Meet the Press” Sunday, moderator Chuck Todd quizzed Trump on his position. “And frankly, it’s sad”. We have North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and we have many countries that aren’t paying for what they are supposed to be paying, which is already too little but not paying anyway and we’re giving them a free ride or a ride where they owe us tremendous amounts of money and have the money but they are not paying it. “But let’s be equally clear: we’re not doing this for them; we’re doing it for us”. And they have the money. It wasn’t the dream of nuclear silos “rusted so badly that they don’t even know if the rockets are going to pour out”, as Trump so eloquently put it.
In the interview Trump also defended Fox News founder Roger Ailes, who left the network amid accusations of sexual harassment; criticised rival Hillary Clinton’s newly named running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, for accepting gifts while Virginia’s governor; dismissed descriptions of his nomination acceptance speech as “dark”, instead calling it “optimistic”; and expressed disapproval of David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who is seeking a Senate seat from Louisiana.
And to make all this work “you have to really care about the American people. not in the abstract”, Obama said, noting that is crucial because that will help ground the president in that hard job and prevent them from being overly influenced by polls, pressure and hard developments. “Terrorism is a real threat”. “We know that because we’re living it, we’re in contact with our constituents”.
Trump also rightly emphasizes the financial costs of American military interventions, pointing out during a Republican primary debate that “we’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people” and “if we spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges.we would’ve been a lot better off”.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was born in the wake of the Second World War in response to what was then seen as aggressive posturing by the Soviet Union (of which Russian Federation was the dominant state, with all orders coming from the Kremlin).
It was not known if Sonboly did in fact shout “God is great” in Arabic. “We defend each other”.
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Thursday he was “disturbed” by Trump’s remarks, USA Today reported.
I have often heard and read that Trump’s danger as a potential president is exaggerated, that the USA system runs itself, that checks and balances compensate for leaders’ character deficiencies.
“The Muslim American … community here, feels deeply American and deeply committed to upholding the rule of law, and working with law enforcement, and rejecting intolerance and extremism that’s represented by the perversions of Islam that [Isis] is sending out through the internet or carrying out in the Middle East”.
Mr Trump portrayed a United States under attack by terrorists and beset by violent immigrant criminals, and forced to carry an unfair burden overseas, while calling both for an isolationist foreign policy and a more muscular strategy with regional allies to destroy ISIL.
In Trump’s 75-minute speech, a core message was “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo”.
“The American people are going to be reminded again and again in this election that these baseless charges are against a man who has been an outsider, not someone who has been in the establishment”.
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Without that grounding, he said, “you will be buffeted and – and blown back and forth” by polls, interest groups and conflicting advice, “and you will lose your center of gravity”.
