US presidential candidate Trump is causing outrage with his statement that he will not protect defaulting NATO allies from Russia. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said this “undermines our entire security.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sharply criticized former US President Donald Trump’s statement that he would not defend defaulting NATO allies in the event of re-election.
“Any suggestion that allies will not defend themselves undermines all of our security, including that of the United States, and puts U.S. and European soldiers at increased risk,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels.
Trump: “Even encourage Russia”
Republican US presidential candidate Trump said on Saturday at a campaign event in the US state of South Carolina that he would not grant protection from Russia to NATO partners who do not meet their financial obligations.
The “president of a great country” once asked him whether the United States would still protect this country from Russia even if it did not pay for defense spending, Trump said. He replied: “No, I wouldn’t protect you.” What’s more, he would “even encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want.” It was unclear whether there had ever been such a conversation between Trump and a head of state, because Trump also said: “Let’s assume that happened.”
Sharp criticism from the EU and Poland
The EU and Poland also criticized Trump’s statement. An explicit statement from the federal government is not yet available. The Foreign Office wrote in English on the short message service
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton told broadcaster LCI that Trump’s stance was not new. “Maybe he has memory problems,” he commented on the 77-year-old former president’s statements. “In fact, it was a female president – not of a country, but of the EU,” said Breton, referring to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In January, Breton himself reported on a meeting in Davos in 2020 between Trump and von der Leyen. He quoted Trump as saying, among other things: “By the way, NATO is dead and we will leave it, we will withdraw from NATO.”
Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that no election campaign could serve as an excuse to play with the security of the alliance.
White House: “Appalling and disturbing”
The White House also reacted to Trump’s statement. “Encouraging attacks by a murderous regime on our closest allies is appalling and disturbing,” said spokesman Andrew Bates. “It endangers America’s national security, global stability and our domestic economy.” Instead of calling for wars and promoting “deranged chaos,” US President Joe Biden will “continue to strengthen American leadership.”
During a recent visit to Washington, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg countered fears that the outcome of the US presidential election could endanger the future of NATO. Stoltenberg told the US broadcaster CNN at the end of January that he had worked with Trump for four years and listened to him carefully. Trump’s main criticism, that the allies are spending too little on NATO, has been received. They have significantly increased their defense spending in recent years.
Trump repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NATO
Trump, who ruled in the White House from 2017 to 2021, repeatedly threatened to withdraw the United States from the defense alliance. As the Washington Post reported, he already mentioned a meeting at an event in 2022 in which he told NATO partners that he would not stick to the alliance’s defense commitment if the countries did not spend more on their defense budgets. Accordingly, it may be an allusion to a statement made by Trump at the NATO summit in 2018.
The Republican wants to be re-elected president in November and is fighting for his candidacy in his party’s primaries. Among other things, he promotes a fundamental reassessment of NATO.
At the campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump also announced again that he would deport people on a large scale. Irregular immigration is one of the dominant issues in the US election campaign. A frequently used argument on the Republican side is that taxpayers’ money should not be spent on protecting other countries – such as Ukraine – but on protecting their own borders.