Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s plot about NATO has provoked strong reactions.
Now even President Joe Biden is reacting.
– He makes it very clear that he will abandon our allies if Russia attacks them, and let Russia do ‘whatever the hell he wants with them’, says Joe Biden.
It was during an election meeting in the state of South Carolina that Donald Trump reproduced details from a conversation he allegedly had with a leader of a European NATO country.
“I said: ‘You didn’t pay? Are you a criminal?’ He said, ‘Well, let’s say it happened.’ No, I wouldn’t protect you. I would actually encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You have to pay,” said Donald Trump during the rally.
It is not the first time the former president has criticized other NATO members for paying too little to the defense alliance, but according to several experts he went further than usual this time.
Biden: “Scary and dangerous”
The outcome during the election meeting has raised both anger and concern about what might happen to the defense alliance if Trump is elected president this fall. Now even President Joe Biden is raising a finger of warning.
– Trump’s actions, that he intends to give Putin the green light for more war and violence and to continue his brutal war in Ukraine, is both frightening and dangerous, says Joe Biden.
Biden is not the only one who reacted to Trump’s outburst. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that any attack on NATO will be met with a united and forceful response.
– Any hint that allies will not defend each other undermines all our security, including that of the United States, and exposes American and European soldiers to increased risk, Stoltenberg says.
Many pay less
The NATO countries have set a joint goal of spending an amount corresponding to at least two percent of their own country’s GDP on defense by 2024 at the latest to contribute to NATO’s overall capability. That decision was made after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in 2014.
In 2022, seven of the thirty member countries had reached two percent or more.