Russia and Putin · 2016 campaign · № 10
Told The New York Times that NATO was 'obsolete' and that nobody but the U.S. seemed to care about Ukraine
“the question was asked of me a few days ago about NATO, and I said, well, I have two problems with NATO. No. 1, it's obsolete. When NATO was formed many decades ago we were a different country. There was a different threat.”
- Said
- , Telephone interview with The New York Times (transcript published March 26, 2016)
- Subject
- NATO
- Type
- NATO and allies
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
In two telephone conversations on Friday, March 25, 2016, Trump told the Times' David Sanger and Maggie Haberman that NATO was obsolete because it was not focused on terrorism and because 'the United States bears far too much of the cost of NATO'. On Ukraine he said 'it didn't seem to me like anyone else cared other than us' and that the countries bordering Ukraine were 'not even asking us for help'. Four days earlier he had told The Washington Post's editorial board that 'NATO is costing us a fortune' and asked 'why is it that Germany is not dealing with NATO on Ukraine?' He repeated the 'obsolete' label through the campaign and again in a January 2017 interview with The Times of London and Bild, after which Germany's foreign minister said the comment had caused 'worry and concern' in the alliance. At a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on April 12, 2017 he said: 'I said it was obsolete; it's no longer obsolete.'