NATO summit shadowed by Trump’s renewed criticism
At the same time NATO leaders were attending the summit in Washington, Donald Trump once again dismissed the alliance.
Donald Trump's words were spoken during an election rally at the Doral golf club in Florida.
- I didn't even know what the hell NATO was too much before, but it didn't take me long to figure it out, like about two minutes. And the first thing I figured out was that they weren't paying. We were paying, we were paying almost fully for NATO - said Donald Trump to his voters.
Donald Trump's comments on NATO came on the first day of the alliance summit, which began on Tuesday in Washington. That same evening, President Joe Biden announced the transfer of five new strategic air defence systems to Ukraine, including four Patriot batteries and one SAMP/T.
In his speech, Joe Biden also assured that the Alliance enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support in America because Americans know that the Alliance makes America safe. He emphasised that without NATO, we would be dealing with "another war in Europe, American troops fighting and dying, dictators spreading chaos, economic collapse, catastrophe".
Criticises NATO again
The words spoken in Florida are another criticism of Donald Trump towards NATO. In February, the former President of the United States stated that he would encourage Russia to "do whatever (...) they want" to other NATO countries that do not fulfil their financial obligations to the Alliance.
During the election rally, he recounted a conversation with one of the heads of NATO countries. He said that one of the leaders asked him if, should they not spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence and Russia attacked them, the US President would come to their defence.
- I said: 'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?'... 'No I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage them to do whatever they want. You gotta pay - Trump said at the time.
