After NATO, Trump attacks his Asian allies: “They didn't help us.” What are the target countries?
US President Donald Trump resumed his claim that NATO is a “paper tiger”, to which he added a series of critical statements towards allies in the Far East whom he blamed for not helping the United States in the intervention in Iran.
“NATO is a paper tiger, I've said so many times. They didn't want to give us any airstrips,” said Donald Trump, in a press conference held at the White House.
Explaining the distance from NATO, the American president evoked Greenland. “If you want to know the truth, it all started with Greenland. We want Greenland, they don't want to give it to us, and I told them 'bye, bye,'” Trump claims.
“Kim Jong Un has a very good opinion of me”
But the American president also criticized allied countries in the Pacific area. “Japan didn't help us, South Korea didn't help us, Australia didn't help us,” Trump said, recalling that the US has 50,000 troops stationed in Japan and 40,000 in South Korea, the latter protecting the Asian country from North Korea.
“Kim Jong Un said about Joe Biden that he is a retard, he has a very good opinion of me,” said the American president.
Instead, Trump praised the cooperation with Arab countries in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The US president also praised Bahrain, with the caveat that the country's military accidentally shot down three American planes. “They didn't know how to use the Patriot missiles. They had the beautiful Patriots, but they fired at our planes,” Trump complained.
Trump is considering withdrawing from NATO
US President Donald Trump said in April that he was seriously considering withdrawing the United States from NATO after the allies refused to back US military action against Iran, according to an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
Trump described the alliance as a “paper tiger” and said the US withdrawal from the defense treaty was now “beyond reconsideration”, the paper reported.
He said he had long had doubts about NATO's credibility.
“Yes, I would say it (is) beyond any reconsideration,” Trump told the paper when asked if he would reconsider US membership in the alliance after the conflict.
“I was never impressed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows it, by the way,” he said.
