WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned “dumb” and “shameful” comments by Donald Trump on NATO, in one of the incumbent’s most blistering attacks yet on his likely Republican rival in November’s election.
The 81-year-old Democrat accused his predecessor of bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Trump said he would encourage Moscow to attack NATO members who failed to meet financial commitments.
“For God’s sake, it’s dumb, it’s shameful, it’s dangerous, it’s un-American,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House to urge the House of Representatives to pass vital war aid for Ukraine.
“Can you imagine a former president of the United States saying that? The whole world heard it. And the worst thing is he means it,” he added.
“No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will.”
Washington’s allies reacted with alarm after Trump made his most extreme broadside yet against the US-led military alliance — even by his standards of long-term NATO-bashing.
Biden used Trump’s comments to fuel his election attack line against Trump — who was impeached twice as president and now faces a series of criminal trials — as a threat to democracy.
In his remarks from the state dining room at the White House, he accused the real estate tycoon of acting like an organized crime boss when it came to the alliance.
“When he looks at NATO, he doesn’t see the alliance that protects America and the world. He sees a protection racket,” Biden said.
Biden added that if Trump’s allies in the House fail to follow the lead of the Senate and pass a bill with billions of dollars in military assistance for Ukraine, then they will be playing into Putin’s hands.
Trump made the comments at a campaign rally in South Carolina on Saturday, describing what he said was a conversation with a fellow head of state at an unspecified NATO meeting.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you,’” Trump told his supporters.
“In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
A defiant Trump later defended his comments, saying he had made NATO “strong” by making allies meet defense spending targets when he was in office from 2017-2021.
Trump has a long history of praising the Kremlin leader, for example calling him a “genius” and more credible than US intelligence.
He has also said that as president, he could settle the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
Biden blasts Trump’s ‘dumb’ and ‘dangerous’ NATO threats
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Biden blasts Trump’s ‘dumb’ and ‘dangerous’ NATO threats
- Washington’s allies reacted with alarm after Trump made his most extreme broadside yet against the US-led military alliance — even by his standards of long-term NATO-bashing
Europeans push back at US over claim they face ‘civilizational erasure’
- “Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference
MUNICH: A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies. He struck a less aggressive tone than Vice President JD Vance did in lecturing them at the same gathering last year but maintained a firm tone on Washington’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its policy priorities.
Kallas alluded to criticism in the US national security strategy released in December, which asserted that economic stagnation in Europe “is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It suggested that Europe is being enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birth rates, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.”
“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference. “In fact, people still want to join our club and not just fellow Europeans,” she added, saying she was told when visiting Canada last year that many people there have an interest in joining the EU.
Kallas rejected what she called “European-bashing.”
“We are, you know, pushing humanity forward, trying to defend human rights and all this, which is actually bringing also prosperity for people. So that’s why it’s very hard for me to believe these accusations.”
In his conference speech, Rubio said that an end to the trans-Atlantic era “is neither our goal nor our wish,” adding that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
He made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on issues such as migration, trade and climate. And European officials who addressed the gathering made clear that they in turn will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe must defend “the vibrant, free and diverse societies that we represent, showing that people who look different to each other can live peacefully together, that this isn’t against the tenor of our times.”
“Rather, it is what makes us strong,” he said.
Kallas said Rubio’s speech sent an important message that America and Europe are and will remain intertwined.
“It is also clear that we don’t see eye to eye on all the issues and this will remain the case as well, but I think we can work from there,” she said.
