USA TODAY International Edition
Trump appears to put conditions on aiding NATO allies
Donald Trump appeared in an interview to set conditions on coming to the aid of NATO allies while touting a foreign policy approach that would see the United States “fix our own mess” before intervening to help solve problems in other countries.
Trump said that if Russia were to attack the Baltic States — new NATO members whose friendly relations with the West Moscow views as a threat — he would decide on coming to their aid only after assessing how those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” He characterized these obligations in mostly economic terms. He spoke to the New York
Times ahead of his acceptance of the Republican nomination for president on Thursday. He told the publication how he would make international partners contribute more to defense costs, pull out of treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada if they don’t meet U. S. interests and redraw the terms of long- held global cooperation.
He said he would “prefer to be able to continue” with existing agreements but on specific terms: “We are going to take care of this country first before we worry about everyone else in the world.”
Trump expressed approval of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s handling of a recent coup attempt there despite growing international concerns that Turkey’s democratically elected leader may be trying to use a subsequent political purge to shield an aggressive erosion of the rule of law and Western stands of justice.
He said that he didn’t think the United States was in a position to take the moral high ground with its allies. “Look at what is happening in our country,” he said. “How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?”
“I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around,” Trump said of Erdogan’s overcoming of Friday’s coup attempt. “Some people say that it was staged, you know that,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Trump said that he was certain that he would be able to persuade the Turkish leader to increase his efforts to fight the Islamic State in neighboring Syria.
When asked how, specifically, he would be able to do that when Turkey is almost daily attacking Kurdish groups — seen by President Obama’s administration as the most effective tool to counter the Islamic State — Trump said “Meetings.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a statement after the publication of the remarks.
“For decades, the United States has given an ironclad guarantee to our NATO allies: We will come to their defense if they are attacked, just as they came to our defense after 9/ 11. Donald Trump was asked if he would honor that guarantee. He said ... maybe, maybe not.”