Trump makes 'unhinged' comment about planning to violate NATO treaty if reelected

As the run-up to November’s US presidential election continues to intensify, former Potus Donald Trump spoke at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday, and appeared to indicate that he was willing to violate Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (overseen by Nato) by letting Russia do “whatever the hell they want” to a member country if they “don’t pay” their bills.

Referring to a conversation he claimed he had with “one of the presidents of a big country”, Trump said: “They asked me that question … ‘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. You’ve got to pay.

“You’ve got to pay your bills.”

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, by the way, concerns the “collective defence” principle that “an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies”. It’s previously come up when two civilians in Poland – a Nato member - were killed by missiles reportedly belonging to Russia.

The article, however, has only ever been invoked once in its history, which was following the events of 9/11 in 2001.

Nevertheless, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates slammed Trump’s comments as “appalling and unhinged”.

“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,” he said.

And Twitter/X users were equally concerned by the rhetoric:

Russia has already been in the headlines this week after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released his two-hour long interview with Vladimir Putin about topics such as Nato and the war in Ukraine.

When Carlson asked the president if he would attack Poland, Putin replied: “Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia – we have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere. It is absolutely out of the question.

“It goes against common sense to be involved in a global war … and a global war will bring humanity to the brink of destruction,” he said.

Social media users still remained concerned by Putin supposedly ruling out such an invasion, considering he said in January 2022 that Russia wouldn’t invade Ukraine and then did so a month later.

Just last month, leaked official documents from Germany’s Ministry of Defence showed the country’s armed forces are preparing for an expansion of Putin’s invasion of Europe – as early as this year or 2025.

In a statement obtained by Sky News, Nato said: ""NATO remains ready and able to defend all allies. Any attack on NATO will be met with a united and forceful response.

"Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.

"I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election the US will remain a strong and committed NATO ally."

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.