Donald Trump threatened negligent NATO members with an attack from Russia: The White House was upset

Donald Trump has said he would encourage Russia to attack those US NATO allies that contribute too little to the alliance’s budget. The Democratic-led White House called the remarks of the former American president and presumptive Republican candidate in the 2024 elections “upsetting.”

While seeking a second presidential term as the presumptive Republican nominee for the White House in 2024, Donald Trump said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any of the U.S. NATO allies that he believes are not meeting their financial obligations. The Guardian.

The White House described the remarks as “horrifying and baffling.” Trump made the announcement Saturday during a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary on Feb. 24.

The former American president expressed concerns about aid to Ukraine, as well as about the existence of NATO, the 31-nation alliance that the United States has pledged to defend if necessary.

On Saturday, Trump said that during an unspecified NATO meeting, he warned one of his fellow NATO heads of state that the United States under his leadership would not defend any countries that were “wrongdoers.”

“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Okay, sir, if we don’t pay and we get attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, adding: “I said, ‘If you don’t pay, are you a criminal?’ “”“No, I wouldn’t defend you. In fact, I’d tell them to do whatever the hell they want. You have to pay. You have to pay your bills.”

White House press secretary Andrew Bates, asked about Trump’s comments, reflected the terrible shock in the Biden administration: “Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is horrific and abnormal – and it threatens America’s national security, global stability and our economy at home.”

NATO countries agreed in 2014, after Russia rejoined the Crimean peninsula, to end spending cuts they had made since the Cold War and move to spending 2% of their GDP on defense by 2024.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump alarmed Western allies by warning that the United States under his leadership might abandon its NATO treaty obligations and defend only those countries that met the alliance’s target of 2% military spending. GDP.

As of 2022, NATO reported that seven of the current 31 NATO member countries were meeting this commitment, up from three in 2014. The conflict in Ukraine in 2022 has stimulated additional military spending by some NATO members, The Guardian notes.

Trump’s comments come as Ukraine remains bogged down in its efforts to confront Russia and congressional Republicans are increasingly skeptical about providing more aid to Kiev, which has faced stalled counteroffensives and a weapons shortage.

Trump’s remarks on Saturday quickly raised alarm bells among many political experts in the United States. “It sounds like Trump is in some ways encouraging Russia to attack our NATO allies,” comments David Corn, an MSNBC analyst and Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, on X.

On Saturday, America’s former president also celebrated the recent collapse of congressional legislation aimed at resolving the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border. The bill was backed by Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, and Trump has vowed that if re-elected he would launch a “massive deportation operation” on his first day back in the Oval Office.

Trump performed strongly in opinion polls against Biden, who defeated the former president in the 2020 election. However, he faces more than 90 criminal charges.

The charges, contained in four separate indictments in different jurisdictions, allege that he tried to undermine the results of an election he lost, illegally kept state secrets after his presidency and made illegal hush payments to a porn actress who claims she had sexual contact with Trump. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.