Biden calls Trump’s comments questioning NATO commitment ‘un-American,’ ‘dumb’
Global News
U.S. President Joe Biden sharply criticized Donald Trump on Tuesday over his comments questioning future support for NATO allies in the event of an attack.
U.S. President Joe Biden sharply criticized Donald Trump on Tuesday over his comments questioning future support for NATO allies in the event of an attack, calling them “un-American,” “dangerous” and “dumb.”
Trump, who is likely to face Biden in November’s presidential election, has come under fire for suggesting at a campaign rally last weekend that he would abandon NATO members that don’t meet their defence spending commitments, and would even encourage aggressors like Russia to “do whatever the hell they want.”
“Can you imagine a former President of the United States saying that?” Biden said at the White House, where he delivered remarks urging U.S. House Republicans to take up a Senate-passed aid bill to fund Ukraine’s efforts to hold off Russia’s two-year-long invasion.
“For God’s sake, it’s dumb, it’s shameful, it’s dangerous, it’s un-American,” he added.
One of NATO’s foundational principles is Article 5, which commits to collective defence and the vow that an attack against one member is an attack against all, and will result in allied action.
But Trump has often lamented other members are not pulling their weight by not meeting the alliance’s pledge of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence. Trump has equated that non-binding pledge with membership dues, suggesting members are leeching off the U.S. military and openly questioning the value of the post-war military alliance.
“Donald Trump looks at this as if it’s a burden,” Biden said. “When he looks at NATO, he doesn’t see the alliance that protects America and the world. He sees a protection racket.”
He noted that Article 5 has only been invoked once in NATO’s 70-year history, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
The call was held amid increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Ukraine by U.S. President Donald Trump and concerns the U.S. is negotiating a peace deal directly with Russia.
'We want to be clear given this designation that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,' Claudia Sheinbaum said after the U.S. classified Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
The asteroid, described as a "city killer," is keeping space watchers on their toes.
Police were investigating the motive for the attack in Hradec Kralove, a city 110 km east of Prague.
Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead.
Marine experts have given up hope of rescuing more than 150 false killer whales are stranded on a remote beach on Australia’s island state of Tasmania, officials said on Wednesday.
Hochhalter was found in her home in suburban Denver on Sunday. Her family suspects she died of natural causes stemming from her injuries in the 1999 shooting,
Residents of an English village were evacuated as a large sinkhole swallowed parts of the town’s main street up to the edge of homes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he “would like Trump’s team to be more truthful" after Trump suggested Ukraine “should have never started” the war.
Ukraine was not involved in either high-level meeting on its future and a possible end to the war, and it remains unclear when all sides will be at the same table in the future.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power despite losing to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Moscow's Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov says "Russia has no interest" in joining the Group of Seven, which he calls an "outdated structure."
Authorities in Sicily say tourist vehicles are clogging up streets leading to the volcano, potentially blocking emergency services and rescue efforts.