{"id":40366,"date":"2025-01-08T17:37:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=40366"},"modified":"2025-01-08T17:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:37:29","slug":"trump-on-nato-they-pay-less-than-they-should-for-u-s-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/trump-on-nato-they-pay-less-than-they-should-for-u-s-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump on NATO: They Pay Less Than They Should for U.S. Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-a:r791123472520401888-content\" class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">U.S. President-elect Donald Trump urged NATO members to increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP, reiterating accusations that they are paying less than they should for U.S. protection.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Trump told reporters: \u201cThey can all afford it, but the percentage should be 5%, not 2%.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Trump has long questioned NATO, which has been the backbone of European security since World War II. Last month, the Republican billionaire repeated his threat to withdraw from the alliance unless its members agree to increase their spending, according to Reuters.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In an interview, Trump stated: \u201cIf they\u2019re paying their bills, and I see that they\u2019re treating us fairly, then yes, I will absolutely stay in NATO.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In 2023, NATO\u2019s 32 member states set a minimum defense spending target of 2% of GDP. The Russian war on Ukraine has prompted NATO to bolster the security of its eastern flank and increase defense spending.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Trump is not the only senior official calling for higher spending. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also stated last month: \u201cWe\u2019ll need much more than 2%.\u201d Rutte warned that European countries are not ready to face the threat of war with Russia, urging them to significantly boost their defense budgets.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Biden Wanted Ukraine to Join NATO<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On Tuesday, Trump claimed that outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden wanted Ukraine to join NATO someday, suggesting that this stance may have contributed to Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trump stated: \u201cAt some point, Biden said, \u2018The Ukrainians should be able to join NATO.\u2019 Well, Russia found someone on their doorstep, and I can understand how they feel about that.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In reality, NATO countries have promised Ukraine since 2008 that it will become a member of the alliance someday. However, the U.S. and Germany have been reluctant to go beyond this promise, fearing that the alliance could be drawn into a war with Russia.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Trump has previously pledged to push for a quick agreement to end the war in Ukraine, raising concerns about the future of U.S. military aid to Kyiv.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On Tuesday, Trump said the war in Ukraine \u201cshould never have started,\u201d adding: \u201cI assure you, if I were president, the war would never have happened.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump urged NATO members to increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP, reiterating accusations that they are paying less than they should for U.S. protection. Trump told reporters: \u201cThey can all afford it, but the percentage should be 5%, not 2%.\u201d Trump has long questioned NATO, which has been the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40367,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions\/40367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}