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.

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