As the war in Iran has unfolded, and traditional U.S. allies have steered clear of the conflict, Donald Trump has repeatedly used the developments as evidence against the NATO alliance. The closer one looked at the president’s condemnations, however, the less sense they made.
At a White House Cabinet meeting two weeks ago, for example, he said he’s “very disappointed with NATO” because its members “didn’t come to our rescue” after the United States launched a war with Iran. What he failed to note, of course, was that the United States wasn’t attacked and didn’t need a “rescue” from anyone.
Nevertheless, in the days that followed, the Republican continued to ratchet up his condemnations of the most successful military and diplomatic international alliance in the history of the world. The day after his Cabinet meeting, Trump spoke at an investment conference sponsored by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and whined that NATO “just wasn’t there” for the U.S. when he asked for help with the Iran war.
The following week, the American president spoke to The Telegraph, a prominent publication in the U.K., which asked if he would reconsider the United States’ membership in the alliance. “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he replied.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed the point around the same time, with the latter saying, “You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”
The underlying point, however, remained unchanged: We didn’t need them. We launched a war of choice, for reasons the White House still hasn’t explained in any meaningful way, and there is nothing in the NATO charter that requires its members to participate in unnecessary military conflicts, just because the American president wants them to.
But as substantively incoherent as Trump’s case against NATO has been, he added a new wrinkle at the very end of a White House press conference on Monday, when he shared fresh thoughts on his broader indictment against the alliance.
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After noting that Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, is scheduled to arrive at the White House this week for a meeting, Trump declared, “You know, it all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us. And I said, ‘Bye, bye.’”
At that point, he quickly ended the press conference and walked away.
It was every bit as bonkers as it appeared. By Trump’s own telling, he demanded control over the Arctic island, and when Denmark and the people of Greenland failed to satisfy him, the American president decided that the NATO alliance was no longer worthy of U.S. support.
As for the international effects of Trump’s radical absurdities, Politico reported last week that the Republican’s anger “has so far achieved one thing: uniting [NATO members] against him.”
Vladimir Putin has long dreamed of seeing a wedge between the United States and the NATO alliance. The incumbent American president appears eager to satisfy the Russian’s vision.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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