“I made NATO strong,” Trump wrote on the online service Truth Social on Monday. “When I told the 20 countries that hadn’t paid their (…) share that they had to pay because otherwise they wouldn’t receive military protection from the US, the money started flowing,” he said.
After the US had been “paying the bill” for so many years, this was “a beautiful sight.” “But now that I’m no longer there to say ‘You have to pay,’ they’re starting once more,” the former president continued. Trump, who has a good chance of running once morest President Joe Biden in the presidential election in November, had already accused European NATO partners in his first term of office of investing too little money in defense and allowing themselves to be protected at the expense of the USA.
On Saturday, Trump recounted an unspecified meeting with NATO partners at a rally in the US state of South Carolina: “One of the presidents of a major country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay up and we get attacked by Russia ‘Then will you protect us?'”. Trump responded by saying that in this case he would not protect the country and would even encourage Russia to do “whatever they want” with him. The statement caused strong international criticism.
“Horrifying and dangerous”
US President Joe Biden called Trump’s words “horrific and dangerous.” Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said that “any relativization of NATO’s guarantee of assistance is irresponsible and dangerous.” Meanwhile, CDU defense politician Roderich Kiesewetter has spoken out in favor of tripling the special funds for the German Bundeswehr. “I wouldn’t rule out an increase in the special fund for the Bundeswehr. It’s completely clear that we need 300 billion instead of 100 billion so that the Bundeswehr becomes combat-ready,” Kiesewetter told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” according to the advance report in Tuesday’s edition. However, misuse of the money to plug budget holes must be ruled out.
In addition, a permanent defense budget of at least two percent of economic power must be achieved in parallel. However, this can only be achieved “with re-prioritisation and clear structural reforms,” said the CDU politician. The SPD budget politician Andreas Schwarz told the paper that spending on defense and civil protection should be permanently excluded from the debt brake in the Basic Law because of the uncertainties in the USA and the threat from Russia. Germany urgently needs to invest in civil and disaster protection and needs much more cyber defense, bunkers, mobile operating theaters and hospital supplies.
