I will not protect you': Trump threatens to abandon NATO allies
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00:00During his speech in Detroit today, the same one where he insulted Detroit,
00:04Donald Trump also bragged before the city's Economic Club about his
00:08willingness to abandon NATO allies in the face of Russian aggression.
00:15Does that mean that if we don't pay, you will not protect us from Russia?
00:21Used to be the Soviet Union, now it's Russia. Sort of the same thing.
00:25I said, that's what it means. I will not protect you under any form, you will not be protected.
00:33Donald Trump was talking about NATO allies who don't spend enough percentage of their GDP on
00:39defence and the US would have to come to anyone in NATO's defence, obviously if one of them
00:45was hit by an attacker that is in the, of course, NATO treaty. But that chapter in his first term,
00:53something that we have long heard him echo, has led some lifelong Republicans, including some of
00:58the ones who served in his administration, to say that they cannot support Donald Trump a second
01:03time. My source tonight is one of them, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton.
01:07Ambassador, I just wonder what you make of, it's not just this comment because we've heard Donald
01:12Trump say things like this before, but it's the comment in the context of what we've learned
01:17recently from Bob Woodward's new book, which is that he and Putin have reportedly spoken
01:22at least seven times since he left office. What do you make of the comment in light of that reporting?
01:29Well, I think the number of times that he's spoken with Putin is in dispute,
01:34the Russians deny it. We don't have any other independent evidence, wouldn't surprise me in
01:39the slightest if he did. And it would simply confirm what has been evident for some time, that
01:46Trump thinks he's got a great personal relationship with Vladimir Putin. And in Trump's mind,
01:50this is consistent, whether it's Xi Jinping or Kim Jong-un or other adversarial leaders like that,
01:57that if he has a good relationship personally, then the U.S. and that country have a good
02:01relationship. That's just utter nonsense. And these comments about NATO, he's made before,
02:06some of his advisors have written op-eds on how he'll interpret the NATO treaty about not defending
02:13countries that aren't spending adequately on defense. That means the end of NATO, let's be
02:18clear. I wrote about this in the Wall Street Journal months ago. You can't defend Poland,
02:22which is spending about three percent. And if we're unfortunately driven back to the German
02:27border by the Russians to say, excuse me, Russians, can you just pause for a moment?
02:32You can do what you want in Germany. We'll see at the French border because they're spending over
02:36two percent. It means the end of NATO. And I just make one more comment, if I may.
02:41For Republicans who believe that Trump will be OK in a second term, that he won't ditch support
02:49for Ukraine, that he won't withdraw from NATO, that he won't interpret the Treaty of Washington
02:55in a way that makes it wholly useless, it's going to be OK. Go ahead and vote for Trump if you want.
03:00But for goodness sakes, do it with your eyes open. The odds that he will withdraw from NATO
03:05are very high. You know, if you were if you weren't the national security advisor currently
03:10and you found out the former president was talking directly with Putin, a hostile foreign
03:16leader who had invaded a sovereign country, as Putin has done, and that former president
03:21was not briefing anyone at your State Department or you on those conversations, what would your
03:26response be? Well, let me say first, I think President Biden very early in his term made
03:35a decision that Trump would not receive any briefings of classified information,
03:40which I think makes him unique in contemporary times as a former president, not to get briefings
03:46like that just as a courtesy so that the incumbent president, if he wanted to, could call
03:52a former president up and talk with him about crises. And I think it reflected Biden's concern,
03:58which is entirely legitimate, that Trump can't keep his mouth shut and that he might reveal
04:03currently classified information to our adversaries. But I do want to say this about
04:09the general subject of of a former American official talking to leaders of friendly foreign
04:17countries or even leaders of not so friendly foreign countries. I think it's a gross violation
04:22of the First Amendment to say that somehow the Logan Act makes that illegal. It may be imprudent.
04:29It may be unwise. In Trump's case, it may be dangerous given what he may be saying to Putin.
04:35But but you've got to be very careful what you say here. Otherwise, a lot of foreign former
04:42officials are in violation of the Logan Act. I think remember when it was passed. Remember,
04:47it's been prosecuted twice. So I think people need to calm down a little bit about this.
04:51Notwithstanding, I think it was ill advised for Trump to talk to Putin if he did after he left
04:56office. And of course, it's not illegal and there's not a criminal conspiracy that immediately
05:01arises. But of course, we all remember Trump wanted to prosecute John Kerry for talking to
05:05Iranian officials, even though he was briefing the State Department. But I have to ask you about this,
05:09Ambassador, because in this book from Bob Woodward, he reveals that Trump sent Putin
05:14covid tests at the height of the pandemic. Putin didn't want anyone to know about it.
05:17According to this, he said, don't tell them what it's worse for you than it is for me,
05:21which made me or us think about this book that Yasmeen Abudalab and Damian
05:26Pilata at The Washington Post wrote about the pandemic, where they quoted Trump at one point
05:33saying that he hoped that you would you would die from covid. Essentially, he was worried about
05:38another aid getting it. And then he said, quote, according to this book, hopefully covid takes out
05:43John referring to you. I mean, in light of the fact that he was sending covid tests to Putin,
05:48how do you read that now? Well, I'm grateful that he was thinking about me. What can I say
05:55during during a crisis like covid? Look, this this is pure Trump that people are getting now.
06:02And, you know, interestingly, Dmitry Peskov, who is longtime Vladimir Putin spokesman,
06:09confirmed that Trump and Putin had had that conversation about the or that Trump had given
06:17the covid test, even as the Trump campaign was denying anything about it. So the Russians,
06:23in effect, have undercut Trump's effort to distance himself from Russia.
06:29This is the way Trump reacts to these strong authoritarian leaders. I can't
06:35analyze it psychologically, but he just likes being a big guy with big guys. They don't have
06:39to deal with, you know, independent legislatures and judiciaries and due process and all that. Just
06:45do what they want to do. That's what he wants to do, too. Ambassador John Bolton, we are glad
06:50that you're safe tonight. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. Glad to do it.