Donald Trump accused NATO allies of taking “advantage” of American generosity by relying on U.S. taxpayers to protect them while refusing to pay their “fair share” in an interview with Brexit leader Nigel Farage.
The former president and Republican frontrunner in this year’s presidential election drew the ire of the international establishment media and globalist politicians last month when he suggested that he may not honour Article 5 of the NATO treaty which requires all signatories to come to the defence of another if they come under attack.
Mr Trump recounted a story during a South Carolina campaign stop of a conversation with an unnamed European leader, whom he informed that if they failed to meet their NATO spending obligations, he would not send American soldiers to die on their behalf and joked that he would even “encourage” Russia to “whatever the hell they want” under such a scenario.
While NATO insiders understood the comments for the warning they were, the comments were interpreted in the legacy media as an attack on the NATO alliance itself. Touching on the press furore, the former president told Nigel Farage in an interview for GB News: “What I’m saying is a form of negotiation. Why should we guard these countries that have a lot of money [while] the United States was paying for most of NATO? When I went there, I had already had it out with them [in the past].
“They then stopped paying again. But now they’re paying because of those comments that you saw two, three weeks ago [from me]. I don’t know if you know, but a lot of money’s come in since those comments were made.”
Trump said that “billions of dollars came flowing in after he delivered the message: “We’re not going to defend you if you’re not paying your bills.”
“NATO became strong because of me. Now NATO has to treat the US fairly because if it wasn’t for the United States, NATO wouldn’t even exist. They took advantage of us like most countries do,” he explained.
Trump has long been critical of NATO members failing to pay their dues to the alliance, particularly wealthy nations like Germany, who choose to spend their riches on lavish welfare and healthcare systems as well as on handouts to alleged asylum seekers while relying on American taxpayers to foot the bill for their defence. In 2018, for example, then-President Trump accused Germany and others of being “captive” to Russia, paying Moscow billions in exchange for natural gas, as they demanded American protection from Putin.
“NATO was not paying, I went to the first meeting early in my administration and I saw what was going on and I said ‘you’re gonna have to pay your bills everybody.’ Then at the second meeting, I hit them hard,” Trump told Farage.
Trump’s tough talk towards European allies was then, like now, treated by establishment media as a threat towards the alliance itself, however, in 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg credited the president’s tough stance as being a key element in NATO securing an addition $100 billion in spending from European nations and Canada.
More recently, the former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency — the rough equivalent of the CIA — Sir Richard Dearlove praised Trump’s stance towards NATO, saying in an interview last week: “I approve of what Trump did in calling out NATO in his first term, and particularly the Germans. If the Germans really start spending seriously on rearming — which they should be doing because of the size of their economy — that would be totally transformative.”
Trump said in the interview with the Brexiteer: “It was the most unfair thing and don’t forget, it’s more important to them than it is to us. We have an ocean between some problems… They will take advantage. They took advantage of us on trade, they took advantage on the military.”
However, the former and potential future president said that if countries pay their fair share, the United States would “100 per cent” come to their defence.
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