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Trump Wants US to Stay in NATO, but Others Need to Do More: Vance

The United States would stay in NATO if former President Donald Trump is reelected, according to his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), but he added that other members of the military alliance need to pay their fair share.
“Donald Trump wants NATO to be strong. He wants us to remain in NATO,” Vance said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired on Oct. 27. “But he also wants NATO countries to actually carry their share of the defense burden.”
In 2014, in the wake of Russia’s invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, NATO members all agreed to allocate at least 2 percent of their GDPs to defense within a decade.
Trump has long criticized European allies whose stated support for the alliance is not matched by sufficient spending. Along the campaign trail, he also highlighted his success in pressuring NATO members to increase their defense expenditure—only five countries were meeting the 2 percent minimum when he assumed office in 2016; that figure had grown to nine by the time he left the White House.
In February, at a rally in South Carolina, Trump recalled that he once told the president of a “big” NATO country that he would not protect that country from a Russian invasion if it didn’t pay its “bills.”
When pressed by NBC’s Kristen Welker for a direct answer, Vance assured her that under Trump, the United States will remain a member of NATO.
“We would stay in NATO,” Vance said, before moving on to emphasize that wealthier countries such as Germany should spend in accordance with their economic size.
“It’s effectively the United Kingdom, a couple of other nations, and the United States,” he told Welker. “NATO’s problem is particularly Germany has to spend more on security, has to spend more on defense.”
He also called on all of Europe to step up.

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