David Yeazell / AP
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Once again, former President Donald Trump has proven to be both a coward and a Russian asset.
Trump’s — and thus, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s — supporters are now cheering on the idea that the United States would be so ignorant of its own national interests, so friendly toward tyrants and so hateful of democracies and free countries, that it would abandon its steadfast allies over a mere matter of money.
Speaking at a rally Saturday night in South Carolina, Trump received roaring applause after he outlined a scenario in which he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to our allies in NATO unless those countries contribute more to the alliance. “You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,” he added.
Of course, the money is just an excuse — Trump wants to curry favor with Putin, who both terrifies and mesmerizes him.
Putin is making overt efforts to court far-right extremists everywhere in the world in the hope of undermining democracy and the institutions and organizations that defend it.
Trump and his MAGA followers, who now constitute a majority of the Republican Party, have become Putin’s pawns. Their love affair was on full display last week when Tucker Carlson invited the murderous war criminal to spew anti-Ukrainian propaganda on U.S. airwaves for the first 30 minutes or so of a two-hour interview.
Never mind that the Russian leader intentionally targeted innocent civilians, forcing children to starve because he ordered the destruction of civilian food storage facilities or freeze because he ordered the destruction of the civilian power grid. Trump’s GOP doesn’t care about any of that.
Imagine if a similar series of events had occurred in Israel: Carlson inviting the leader of Hamas to spread propaganda on Fox News’ airwaves while Trump publicly declared that our long relationship with Israel was irrelevant. Imagine the disgraced former president saying that if Israel didn’t pay more money, then Trump would “encourage” terrorists like Hamas and ISIS to “do whatever the hell they want” to Israeli hostages and civilians alike.
It’s a shameful and vile hypothetical that belies the fact that Trump doesn’t really care about paying bills at all; heaven knows he doesn’t pay his own.
Even if they were to pay twice what they promised, Trump would still try to destroy NATO. He’s made that clear, and his former national security adviser John Bolton has said as much. Trump’s obsession with NATO’s accounting is nothing more than an excuse to, once again, undermine the unified force of free nations, founded in the aftermath of WWII, that stand against totalitarian governments.
Trump has repeatedly shown that he is cozier, more comfortable and takes greater personal satisfaction from friendships with dictators like those in China, North Korea and Russia than he is with our deepest allies or leaders of other free nations.
Even if you believe that America’s allies should rely less on the American backstop in the defense of their own borders, we should be ashamed that any of our leaders would abandon our allies while publicly announcing their support for and giving platforms to dictators, terrorists and war criminals.
Moreover, publicly announcing such an absurd foreign policy threatens American interests — and U.S. service members — around the globe.
Even before Hamas’ deadly terrorist attack on Israel, the U.S. had approximately 228,000 military personnel stationed in allied territory abroad, according to the Department of Defense.
Of those, more than 100,000 American troops are stationed in NATO countries that Trump just said he would “encourage” Russia to invade. Another 75,000 are in South Korea and Japan, both of which have long been allies of the U.S. targeted by Russia’s allies, North Korea and China.
Trump’s proclamation not only sent a message to our allies that we cannot be trusted, but it also sent a message to our enemies that they need only wait for Trump to take office to invade their neighbors. It lays the groundwork for a decade of the most horrific wars imaginable.
With Trump “encouraging” our foreign adversaries and ordering his GOP acolytes to block all efforts to counter the unholy alliance of Russia, Iran, China and North Korea, U.S. troops stationed overseas will become easy targets. Not that Trump would care. After all, this is the same candidate who openly stated that prisoners of war are nothing but “losers” and “suckers.”
Trump’s supporters are running out of excuses for their continued alliance with such a blatantly immoral man. With Trump’s words Saturday, the 2024 election is no longer just about policy differences. It is about the future security of the United States and whether we — the American people — allow Trump’s greed, ambition and immorality to tip the balance of global power in favor of terrorists, war criminals and dictators.
