Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump has said that he does not believe NATO would come to the United States’ rescue if it came under attack, once again voicing his disdain for the military bloc.
“We’re paying for NATO, and we don’t get so much out of it,” Trump said on Saturday, speaking to a crowd of supporters at a presidential campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“And you know – I hate to tell you this about NATO – if we ever needed their help, let’s say we were attacked, I don’t believe they’d be there. I know the people,” he added.
Trump once again cast doubt on Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which says an armed attack against one member state must be considered an attack against all of them.
The recent statement follows a long history of complaints leveled by Trump at the US-led bloc during and after his presidency.
In 2017, he aroused controversy in Brussels by saying that NATO is “obsolete.”
During his time in office, he repeatedly criticized Germany and other US allies for not spending enough on their military.
Similarly, Trump criticized US President Joe Biden for providing military aid to Ukraine during its conflict with Russia.
“We don’t have ammunition for ourselves, we give away a lot,” he said last year.
Trump also promised, if re-elected, he would end the conflict between Moscow and Kiev within 24 hours and restore peace in the region.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Trump’s claim as unrealistic. Asked by NBC News in November if he believed Trump would continue to support Ukraine, Zelensky said: “I really don’t know.”
He believes that members of the NATO military alliance should spend two percent of their gross domestic income on their military budget and the United States is not committed to providing the lion’s share of the alliance military spending.
In some of his speeches during his presence at the White House, he repeatedly threatened to withdraw the US from the NATO alliance.
Trump believes that the United States should focus on solving its internal problems instead of nation-building and huge military expenditure abroad.
He has repeatedly criticized the United States military interventions in different parts of the world and believes that the current tensions in some strategic regions of the world are caused by these American military adventures.
Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s nomination as their candidate against Biden.
Earlier this month, he came first in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, prompting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to drop out.
Former US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, is now Trump’s sole Republican rival.
