Trump threatened NATO

US allies appalled, Putin remains silent

Russia's president had a lot to say a few days ago in an interview with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson. However, he does not want to say anything about Donald Trump's latest statements.

(Bild: AP)

Donald Trump's latest election campaign appearance continues to make waves. Both alliance partners and the EU reacted with dismay to his threats against NATO countries that do not meet their financial obligations. The Kremlin, on the other hand, currently sees no reason to comment on the Republican campaigner's remarks.

He is still President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, "but not Trump's", Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Monday. During an election campaign appearance in the US state of South Carolina on Saturday, Trump questioned the NATO states' obligation to provide assistance in the event of an attack on a member state of the alliance.

Donald Trump wants to embrace his supporters, but does not want to protect the USA's NATO partners at all costs as president.

(Bild: AP)

The 77-year-old told supporters that the president of "a major country", which he did not name, had asked him whether the USA would still protect it from a Russian attack if it did not sufficiently fulfill its NATO budget obligations. In response, Trump said he had said: "No, I wouldn't protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do what they want. They have to pay."

White House: "Horrible and crazy"
The White House called Trump's remarks "appalling and insane". NATO spoke of an "undermining of our security". Any suggestion that the countries of the alliance would not defend each other undermines the security of all members, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday. This also applies to the USA. "This puts US and European soldiers at increased risk."

US President Joe Biden sees his rival Donald Trump as "endangering national security".

(Bild: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The EU and Poland also criticized Trump's statements. EU Council President Charles Michel stated that "reckless statements" about NATO security only served the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was necessary for the EU to become more independent, invest in its defense and stand together.

Poland's Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized that the NATO principle of "one for all, all for one" was "a concrete obligation". On the X platform (formerly Twitter), the conservative politician stated: "Undermining the credibility of allied countries means weakening the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization. No election campaign should be a pretext for playing with the security of the Alliance."

Russia's president had a lot to say a few days ago in an interview with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson. However, he does not want to say anything about Donald Trump's latest statements.

(Bild: AP)

Berlin: "Hopefully everyone in Europe will wake up!"
Trump's "misleading statements" would once again prove "how unpredictable, unscrupulous and unreliable he is", said the German government's Transatlantic Coordinator, Michael Link (FDP), in the Tagesspiegel newspaper (Monday). This makes it all the more important "that the EU and NATO prepare for all possible scenarios and do everything possible to make the EU and NATO more capable of acting and more competitive", Link added.

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), sees Trump's threats as a wake-up call to invest more in defense. "Hopefully everyone in Europe will wake up now! Glossing over and burying our heads in the sand is not a strategy," he told the "Tagesspiegel" newspaper. "If Trump really does move back into the White House, you can expect anything. Even the worst."

Green Party foreign policy expert Anton Hofreiter reiterated his call for the debt brake to be lifted in order to provide more money for the Bundeswehr. "In the end, we need a new 100 billion euro package," said the chairman of the Bundestag's European Affairs Committee on Monday.