Donald Trump has launched a ferocious attack on his NATO allies just hours after America seized a Russian-flagged tanker in European waters.
The President ripped into ‘fans’ of the post-WWII military alliance with a reminder that ‘most weren’t paying their bills’ – just 2 percent of their GDP on defense, well short of the 5 percent target set at the Hague last summer.
‘Until I came along,’ Trump wrote on Tuesday morning. ‘The USA was, foolishly, paying for them.’
‘Russia and China have zero fear of NATO without the United States, and I doubt NATO would be there for us if we really needed them,’ he added.
‘We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us. The only nation that China and Russia fear and respect is the DJT-rebuilt USA.’
The broadside comes as the US in another show of its military strength seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker off the north coast of Scotland. Moscow had recently dispatched a submarine to escort the vessel, which was on the run from Venezuela.
Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office in the White House on December 18
