President Trump blasted Nato allies at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday, slamming the European countries for refusing to help the US in Iran despite the US giving trillions of dollars to protect Europe.
When asked during a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whether he was considering reducing the US troop presence in Europe and whether he was satisfied with NATO allies, Trump suggested he might draw down the military presence, describing himself as “very disappointed with NATO.”
Trump further suggested that he “wouldn’t have attended” the NATO summit if it weren’t held in Turkey, describing Erdoğan as a friend and a “very strong leader.”
WATCH:
Trump: Well, we’re going to see. I was very disappointed with NATO, and frankly, if it weren’t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended. I felt I had to attend because of the fact that, you know, I know he’s gone all out. It was a big thing to have NATO come to Turkey or anyplace else. It’s a big thing, but we weren’t treated well because we did something in Iran. We don’t need anybody’s help. I didn’t even want their help, but before I asked, they said they wouldn’t be there, and we’ve invested trillions of dollars in NATO.
Why? To protect European countries and others, Canada, et cetera, but to protect people, countries from, generally speaking, it used to be the Soviet Union, now it’s Russia, and I say that’s fine, but you would think that they’d be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren’t. In the case of the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister, I guess he’s no longer there, maybe because of this, it was a very unpopular thing he did. He said, no, we’ll help after the war is over. I said, I don’t need that kind of help. We didn’t need any help at all.
And in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they’d be there, because I’ve long said that we helped them, but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us. And Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down, and it’s okay, but you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them.
Trump has been attacking NATO since it rebuffed his demands to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and instead urged the United States to end the war, with some completely barring the US from using their bases. He has called the alliance a “paper tiger” on numerous occasions since they turned him down in March.
The President has reportedly been considering pulling US troops out of Europe and even leaving the alliance altogether.
Trump also blasted NATO last week ahead of his trip to the NATO Summit, noting that the US outspends every other country in the alliance on Truth Social:
The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from so doing: U.S. 999 Billion Dollars, United Kingdom, 90.5 Billion Dollars, France, 66.5 Billion Dollars, Italy, 48.8 Billion Dollars, Poland, 44.3 Billion Dollars. Others, including Germany, are MUCH LOWER. (2014-2025) Ridiculous! President DJT
