Former Sen. Scott Brown, a Donald Trump supporter, explained to TPM that Trump’s threats to back out of the U.S.’s NATO obligations were merely a negotiating tactic, and said he was not worried that a President Trump would refuse to defend NATO allies from Russia because of where Trump’s wife was born.
“Obviously that is a mechanism for to put the pressure on these people to say, ‘Oh my goodness, they’re not going to there,’ and to actually get some bargaining power,” Brown told TPM Thursday. “The likelihood of that happening — his wife is from that region — I am not worried about it.”
(Melania Trump was born in Slovenia, a country in Central Europe.)
In a New York Times interview Wednesday, Trump said he would defend the Baltic states and other countries vulnerable to Russian threats “if they fulfill their obligations to us,” while suggesting if they didn’t increase their contributions to NATO, he would not defend them.
Brown on Thursday agreed with Trump that other NATO countries need to pay more.
“They’re not paying their fair share, and they need to pay for their fair share. We are one of only three countries paying,” Brown said.
