During an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump questioned the reliability of NATO allies, saying, “I’ve always wondered, ‘Would they be there if we ever needed them?’ That’s the ultimate test. I’m not sure about that. I know we would be there for them, but would they be there for us?”
Following the 9/11 attacks, the US was the first and only NATO member to activate Article 5, asserting that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, criticized Trump’s remarks as an “absolute insult.” Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, dismissed the comments as “flat-out nonsense,” insisting that allies’ sacrifices “deserve respect, not denigration.”
Trump’s administration has previously downplayed the contributions of NATO allies in Afghanistan.
In June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted that US troops in Afghanistan often joked about the ISAF acronym on their shoulder patches, which stood for International Security Assistance Force, suggesting it really meant “I Saw Americans Fighting.”
“What we had was a lot of flags but not much on-the-ground capability,” Hegseth commented, undermining the efforts of NATO allies.
