ARGUMENT: DIRE CONSEQUENCESJohn Bolton Is Certain Trump Really Wants to Blow Up NATO
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, says that Trump’s goal in threatening to leave NATO “is not to strengthen NATO, it’s to lay the groundwork to get out.” Bolton says the consequences for U.S. and world security would be devastating. “Part of this desire to get out of NATO is that Trump has no idea about what alliance structures do and how beneficial they can be,” Bolton says. “He spent four years as president, he didn’t know anything about it when he entered the Oval Office, and he didn’t know anything about it when he left. So he has no idea the damage that withdrawing from NATO would do. He may be the only figure in American politics who thinks that — there are some nutcases around who don’t care, frankly, what the effect would be, but they’re a very distinct minority.”
John Bolton believes Donald Trump just made up the story about telling an unnamed head of state he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to countries that didn’t meet NATO’s defense spending standards.
But, Politico’s Kelly Garrity writes, Bolton does think the former president’s threats — and his desire to abandon the alliance — are chillingly real.
“Look, I was there when he almost withdrew, and he’s not negotiating,” said Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser. “His goal here is not to strengthen NATO, it’s to lay the groundwork to get out.”
Bolton adds: “I’m telling you, I was there in Brussels when he damn near did it.”
And if Trump does destroy NATO, Bolton warned, the consequences would be dire.
Here are Bolton’s responses to two of the questions posed to him by Garrity:
What are the implications that would come with Trump pulling the U.S. out of NATO? What would that mean for the country and the world?
It would mean the end of NATO. We are the leader of NATO, and what would survive would be remnants of some European Union kind of structure, but it would have implications beyond Europe and North America. I think it would be catastrophic for U.S. credibility around the world. If we’re willing to throw NATO over the side, there is no American alliance that is secure. A lot of people, for instance, say Trump would be so much better for Israel than Biden has been. Well, if Trump is willing to knife NATO, what makes anybody think he wouldn’t knife Israel if it suited his purposes?
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Why should voters care about this?
Well, if they want to secure a country, having alliances that help reinforce our power around the world is critical. You know, the world doesn’t have a natural order. And what order there is, is basically supplied by the United States and its alliances. We’re not doing that out of charity. We’re doing it because it’s in our national interest, to have trade and investment and everything that goes with the world that’s not threatened by hostile, belligerent, aggressive nations. It’s true that probably most allies are free-riding to an extent on U.S. power — and they should pay more. But the answer when they don’t is not to cut off your nose to spite your face.
