Former US president Donald Trump, who is now seeking another term in the White House, has told the Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen that NATO countries near Ukraine are providing enough aid to the country fighting Moscow’s aggression, while allies further away should step up.
Asked about NATO allies such as Poland and Lithuania, whose aid to Ukraine as a share of their GDP is higher than that of the US, Trump replied: “Well, the ones that are close, they’re in trouble if something happens. Poland’s in a different circumstance than some of the others. Some of the others are […] much further away. […] They should pay equal to us.”
Trump also insisted that Russia was not a threat during his presidency between 2016–2020 and “only started really thinking about it [attacking Ukraine], to be honest with you, after Afghanistan”, referencing President Joe Biden withdrawal of US troops in 2021.
“The problem is, now it’s a much different situation because [Putin has] lost a lot of men, but he’s made a lot of progress. You know, he has taken over large portions of that country,” Trump said in the interview. “And one of the biggest problems I have is that Europe – as they did with NATO before I came along – Europe skates. Europe should be putting the same money as us. Europe is a similar size. The economy, if you add them all up, it’s a similar size.”
Trump also praised President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I had a good relationship with Zelensky,” Trump said. “I like him. Because during the impeachment hoax […] he could have said he didn’t know the [conversation] was taped. […] But instead of grandstanding and saying, ‘Yes, I felt threatened,’ he said, ‘He did absolutely nothing wrong.’”
The former US president was referring to the impeachment process against him in 2020, when Trump was accused of trying to make the Ukrainian leadership interfere in the US presidential election in his favour.
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