Donald Trump voiced skepticism about NATO and predicted that other countries would follow Britain’s example of leaving the European Union in an interview Sunday.
Speaking with the Times of London and the German Bild newspaper, Trump said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is “obsolete.”
“It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” he said, according to excerpts published in Bloomberg from Bild’s version of the interview.
“Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should,” he said, adding that NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”
Trump also criticized the European Union, and specifically German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for its handling of the refugee crisis, and said that more countries would follow the example set by Brexit.
“If you ask me, more countries will leave,” he said.
”The fact that your pound sterling has gone down? Great. Because business is unbelievable in a lot of parts in the UK, as you know,” Trump said, as quoted in the Times’ version of the interview. “I think Brexit is going to end up being a great thing.”
“People, countries, want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity,” he continued. “But, I do believe this, if they hadn’t been forced to take in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems that it … entails, I think that you wouldn’t have a Brexit. This was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Trump also called the EU a “vehicle for Germany.” He said he respected Merkel but that she made a “catastrophic” mistake in accepting so many refugees—over one million people from North Africa and the Middle East between 2015 and 2016, according to the Times.
As for Britain, Trump said he would be meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May “very quickly” to work out a trade deal that was “good for both sides.”