Both during his election campaign and once in the White House, Donald Trump has often presented NATO as a military alliance living off American largesse.
The Republican, who has frequently praised his qualities as a negotiator, assured that it was a bluff, in order to obtain concessions.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty obliges the members to protect any country of the alliance which would be attacked.
But at a summit, Donald Trump suggested the treaty would not be honored because “everyone was deadbeat”.
“One of the presidents asked me + does this mean that you will not protect us if we do not pay? You will not protect us from Russia? +”, reported Donald Trump, during an event of the conservative foundation Heritage. “I said, that’s exactly what it means.”
“If I had said + No, that’s not what I meant +, then why would they have paid?” He said during his speech broadcast by the conservative media RSBN.
The billionaire said he was “stunned” that this threat was never revealed by the media.
Donald Trump has often been critical of NATO and other longstanding American alliances, arguing that the United States was spending too much money defending these countries which he considered to be rivals rather than partners.
“We are defending Europe and, at the same time, they are ripping us off, they are ripping us off very, very seriously,” he said on Thursday evening.
Donald Trump has also frequently been accused of having a complacent attitude towards Vladimir Putin.
In February, the invasion of Ukraine, a country which is not a member of NATO, by the master of the Kremlin, provoked a massive response from Washington and its European allies.