Former US President Donald Trump will seek to formally withdraw the United States from NATO if he returns to power, claimed CNN journalist Jim Sciutto in his book ‘The Return of Great Powers’ after citing multiple former White House advisors to Donald Trump.
“NATO would be in real jeopardy,” John Bolton, former US national security advisor in the Trump administration was quoted as saying by Scuitto on CNN.
“I think he would try to get out.”
Also watch | NATO Chief: Trump comments undermine all of our security
Not just NATO, Trump also does not want to keep US troops in South Korea and Japan, retired General John Kelly, a former chief of staff to Donald Trump was quoted as saying in the book, CNN reported.
“The point is, he saw absolutely no point in NATO,” Kelly reportedly said in the book. “He was just dead set against having troops in South Korea, again, a deterrent force, or having troops in Japan, a deterrent force.”
Donald Trump’s opinion on Putin and Kim Jong-un
According to John Kelly, Trump believed Putin and Kim Jong-un to be “okay” guys.
“He thought (Vladimir) Putin was an okay guy and Kim (Jong Un) was an okay guy that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” Kelly recalled. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.'”
The book claims that Trump very nearly removed the United States from NATO at the alliance’s 2018 summit in Brussels.
“He was always ranting and raving and jumping up and down, and oftentimes he would spin up in terms of, ‘Well, I’m smarter than they are,’ and all of this,” Kelly said, describing Trump’s mindset in Brussels.
A former senior US official reportedly told the author that Trump issued orders to then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper for the US to withdraw from NATO.
They reportedly considered the president’s direction a “lawful order” and drew up plans to execute the withdrawal.
Bolton recalled the 2018 summit to the author. “Honest to God, it was frightening because we didn’t know what he was going to do up until the last minute. And I mean, I think, he all but said he was going to get out of NATO and then pulled back on it,” said Bolton.
(With inputs from agencies)
