Donald Trump continues to offer regular bits of tastelessness showcasing his unfitness for the American presidency. On February 10 at a campaign rally in South Carolina the presumptive Republican nominee told his audience that when he was president the leader of an unnamed NATO country asked him: ‘Well, sir, if we don't pay and were attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said: ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ ‘No I would not protect you.” “In fact,” said the ex-president, “I would encourage them [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay! You gotta pay your bills.”
Not only has Trump never favored NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949 by the US, Canada, and thirteen European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. He has also never demonstrated he understands what it is. Despite being corrected numerous times, he has deliberately misunderstood the organization as a protection racket in which European countries pay in to receive US military protection from Russia. So, in one sense, his comment was no surprise, just a repeat of his well-known ignorance.
By way of background, NATO is a military alliance founded in 1949. In “Article 5” of their founding document, NATO countries agreed upon a goal that each would spend 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on their own military expenditures. So, the 2% is not a payment to NATO or to the United States; rather it is a self-determined goal of a level of military spending. Fewer than half of NATO countries have ever met that goal.
Trump’s comments imply that he believes that NATO countries have committed to pay a certain amount to the alliance and that many are delinquent in their payments, which reveals a singular misunderstanding of the actual treaty.
Much more concerning than Trump’s misunderstanding, however, is the second half of his statement, that not only would Trump as president not protect “delinquent” countries, but he would also go further to encourage Russia to attack them, to “do whatever the hell they want.” Here is a US presidential candidate sending a clear statement that as president he would not stand in the way of a Russian attack on a US European ally. It is a statement breathtaking in its ignorance.
Trump’s defenders often suggest that such statements are just Trump talking, “Trump-being-Trump.” This is to ignore the crucial fact that in politics words matter. Certainly European officials heard much more than Trump-being-Trump. According to The Council of Foreign Relations
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, called Trump’s statement “reckless” and said it would “serve only Putin’s interest.”
Trump has made it very clear that if he becomes president, the US commitment to protect Europe from Russia will be a dead letter. It is a statement that he could not walk back even if he understood why he should.
