Former President Donald Trump would encourage Russia to attack U.S. allies whom he claims do not contribute enough to NATO defense costs, he told a crowd of supporters to cheers at a South Carolina rally on Saturday.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,” the Republican frontrunner for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination said.
Dismantling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has long been a goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who orchestrated efforts in 2016 to help Trump and hurt Clinton’s electoral prospects. Members of NATO—which includes the U.S., Canada and 29 European countries—pledge to defend any other nation that gets attacked.
Trump, who currently faces 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions, has long praised Russia’s autocratic leader. During a 2016 presidential debate, the Republican attacked Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, saying Putin had “no respect” for her.
“Well, that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States,” replied Clinton, a longtime critic of Putin’s regime.
“No puppet. No puppet,” Trump replied. “You’re the puppet. No, you’re the puppet.”
That July, he had called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. That same day, Russian operatives hacked and obtained a trove of Democratic Party emails that included some of Clinton’s. The hackers leaked the emails shortly before the election in October 2016 and Trump seized on the materials to criticize Clinton.
In 2020, a Republican-led U.S. Senate committee released a report concluding that Russia had worked to help get Trump elected in 2016 and detailing ties between Russian officials and top Trump campaign officials as part of those efforts. The report echoed the findings of the Mueller Report.
Trump’s latest remarks come as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine. Trump’s first impeachment came in 2019 after he threatened to withhold congressionally approved military aid for Ukraine unless the eastern European country’s president agreed to launch an investigation into the Biden family to hurt his Democratic opponent’s 2020 election chances.
“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged — and it endangers American national security, global stability and our economy at home,” spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement Saturday night.
Read here about how some Mississippi politicians, lobbyists and associates are or have been in the thick of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine web.
