Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. should rethink its involvement in NATO because the defense alliance costs too much money.
In remarks to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, which are part of a series of interviews with the remaining five presidential candidates airing later Monday, Trump said the U.S. pays a disproportionate amount to NATO to ensure the security of allies.
“Frankly, they have to put up more money,” he said. “We are paying disproportionately. It’s too much, and frankly it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea.”
For instance, Trump said Washington was “taking care” of Ukraine and that other European nations were not doing enough to support the Kiev government that has been locked in a long showdown with Moscow.
But Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and Washington is not providing arms to the government as it is fighting pro-Moscow rebels, though has provided nonlethal aid and has helped support international bailouts of the Ukrainian economy.
Later in the interview, Trump qualified his remarks saying that the U.S. should not “decrease its role” in NATO but should decrease its spending. Still, the Republican presidential front-runner’s NATO comments could spur anxiety among the Western foreign policy establishment.
His remarks come as Trump brought his anti-Washington campaign to the nation’s capital Monday. He sought to unify Republicans during a meeting earlier in the day with lawmakers and other members of the party elite. He’s also aiming to bolster his foreign policy credentials, releasing a long-awaited list of his advisers and speaking later to the American Israel Political Action Committee.
Earlier Monday, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton used her speech at AIPAC to slam Trump’s position on Israel. He’s come under fire for previously saying he’s “neutral” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, though he’s repeatedly said he supports Israel.
“We need steady hands. Not a president who says he is neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday and who knows what on Wednesday because everything is negotiable,” Clinton said in a clear shot at the Republican front-runner.
In the CNN interview, Trump said Clinton lacks the strength to be president and dismissed her claim that he was too volatile to be commander in chief.
“Hillary Clinton does not have the stamina … does not have the strength to be president,” Trump told Blitzer.
Trump also dismissed Clinton’s critique about his potential qualifications to serve as president.
“I have the steadiest hands. Look at those hands,” Trump said. “Far steadiest than hers,” he said, accusing Clinton of simply reading speeches scripted by her aides off a teleprompter.
Trump also said that if elected president, he would require the removal of the U.S. embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a reversal of long standing American policy.
“It’s a process but fairly quickly,” Trump said, when asked how quickly he could make such a move happen.
On a day that President Barack Obama held historic talks in Havana with Cuban leader Raul Castro, the billionaire broke with many others in the GOP foreign policy establishment by saying he would continue the President’s policy of normalizing relations with the former U.S. communist foe.
“Probably so,” Trump said. “But I want much better deals than we are making,” Trump said, and said at the “right time” he would be willing to open one of his signature luxury hotels in Havana. He said that Castro had also delivered “a very, very big slight” to Obama but not meeting him at the airport when Air Force One touched down in Havana on Sunday.
The Republican front-runner also warned the party against depriving him of the GOP nomination if he falls marginally short of the 1,237 delegates needed to formally clinch the party’s presidential election nod.
“If it was at 1190, so I am a little bit off …. I think it is going to be very hard for them to do,” Trump said, pointing out he had several million more votes than any other candidate in the Republican primary process. He added that it was “a little unfair” that he had been forced to compete against so many Republican candidates in a manner that made it tougher for anyone to reach that magic number.
“I had many, many people that I am competing with, so you know when you talk about the majority plus one it is a very unfair situation.”
Trump also reiterated that he did not want to see any of the violence that has recently erupted at some of his recent events, but he said that some of his supporters were “very angry” people who had been disenfranchised by politicians. He also accused outside forces of stoking the unrest.
“Sometimes a protestor, I think they are professionals, they get into the room …. it’s a disgrace,” Trump said. “They are the problem; my people aren’t the problem. You have agitators — they aren’t even protestors.”