President-elect Donald Trump signaled in an interview over the weekend that Ukraine should prepare itself for the possibility that it will receive less aid after he takes office and that NATO needs to be prepared to step up its spending or else risk the U.S. leaving the alliance.
Trump made the remarks during a Sunday interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet The Press” when asked about foreign policy.
When asked if Ukraine should be prepared to receive less U.S. assistance, Trump responded: “Yeah. Probably. Sure.”
“We’re in for $350 billion. And Europe is in for $100 billion. Why isn’t Europe in for the same as us?” he asked. “The one thing that should happen is that Europe should come in for — they should equalize. And, you know, Biden, all he had to do, like I did with NATO, I said, ‘You’ve got to pay your bills.’ They weren’t paying their bills.”
Trump noted that he got NATO member countries to greatly increase their contributions to the alliance after a lot of nations were not paying up and were just relying on the U.S. to carry their load for them.
“Europe is in for a fraction. And war with Russia is more important for Europe than it is for us,” he said. “It’s important for everybody, but it’s more important for Europe than it is for us. We have a little thing called an ocean in between us.”
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Trump said that the war needed to be brought to an end quickly because of the amount of destruction and death that it was bringing to the European continent.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, and it should’ve never been allowed to happen,” he said. “Biden should’ve been able to stop it.”
He pledged that the U.S. would stay in NATO, but only if the other countries stepped up and fulfilled their obligations.
“If they play their bills, absolutely,” he said. “But NATO’s taking advantage of us. Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations, okay, like terrible. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our food product, they don’t take anything. It’s a disgrace. And on top of that, we defend them. So it’s a double-whammy. So let me just tell you, I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude. I said to the countries, ‘I’m not going to protect you unless you pay,’ and they started paying. And that amounted to more than $600 billion. That’s a big thing. Otherwise they wouldn’t even be fighting. They wouldn’t have any money to fight. If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re doing a fair — they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO.”
When asked if he would consider leaving if they don’t pay up, Trump said: “Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.”
WATCH:
Trump says Ukraine should prepare itself for a change in how much assistance it gets and that NATO countries need to step up and start paying their fair share. pic.twitter.com/mJOSKY1i1p
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 8, 2024
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
President-elect Donald Trump signaled in an interview over the weekend that Ukraine should prepare itself for the possibility that it will receive less aid after he takes office and that NATO needs to be prepared to step up its spending or else risk the U.S. leaving the alliance.
Trump made the remarks during a Sunday interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet The Press” when asked about foreign policy.
When asked if Ukraine should be prepared to receive less U.S. assistance, Trump responded: “Yeah. Probably. Sure.”
“We’re in for $350 billion. And Europe is in for $100 billion. Why isn’t Europe in for the same as us?” he asked. “The one thing that should happen is that Europe should come in for — they should equalize. And, you know, Biden, all he had to do, like I did with NATO, I said, ‘You’ve got to pay your bills.’ They weren’t paying their bills.”
Trump noted that he got NATO member countries to greatly increase their contributions to the alliance after a lot of nations were not paying up and were just relying on the U.S. to carry their load for them.
“Europe is in for a fraction. And war with Russia is more important for Europe than it is for us,” he said. “It’s important for everybody, but it’s more important for Europe than it is for us. We have a little thing called an ocean in between us.”
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Trump said that the war needed to be brought to an end quickly because of the amount of destruction and death that it was bringing to the European continent.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, and it should’ve never been allowed to happen,” he said. “Biden should’ve been able to stop it.”
He pledged that the U.S. would stay in NATO, but only if the other countries stepped up and fulfilled their obligations.
“If they play their bills, absolutely,” he said. “But NATO’s taking advantage of us. Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations, okay, like terrible. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our food product, they don’t take anything. It’s a disgrace. And on top of that, we defend them. So it’s a double-whammy. So let me just tell you, I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude. I said to the countries, ‘I’m not going to protect you unless you pay,’ and they started paying. And that amounted to more than $600 billion. That’s a big thing. Otherwise they wouldn’t even be fighting. They wouldn’t have any money to fight. If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re doing a fair — they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO.”
When asked if he would consider leaving if they don’t pay up, Trump said: “Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.”
WATCH:
Trump says Ukraine should prepare itself for a change in how much assistance it gets and that NATO countries need to step up and start paying their fair share. pic.twitter.com/mJOSKY1i1p
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 8, 2024
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