Trump puts NATO allies on BLAST: 'They were not there for us'

[0:00] This week, President Trump will join NATO leaders for a high-stakes summit in Turkey. [0:04] Iran and the war in Ukraine are expected to be major points of discussion. [0:09] The meeting comes as President Trump once again called out NATO allies, [0:12] saying the United States carries too much of the financial burden for the alliance. [0:17] Let's bring in former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker. [0:20] Mr. Ambassador, welcome. [0:22] Thank you so much. Great to be with you. [0:24] So, we're in a dangerous world. [0:26] You've got the NATO allies coming together. [0:28] What are the stakes as we head into this summit? [0:32] Yeah, I think that President Trump has been right all along to focus on getting NATO countries to spend more on defense. [0:39] And, indeed, they've committed to do so and they've begun doing so. [0:43] So, last year at the Hague Summit, they committed to 5% of GDP on defense spending. [0:48] Some countries are already at that level, like Poland and some of the Baltic states. [0:53] Others are increasing their defense spending. [0:55] So, that's been important because we have the biggest war in Europe right now since World War II. [1:00] We have threats from Iran. [1:01] We have threats from China. [1:02] So, getting those European allies to do more has been an important priority. [1:06] That being said, I think that the summit is not going to be that exciting this time, [1:12] largely because things are moving in the right direction. [1:14] I want to play for you a clip from the current U.S. ambassador to NATO and I'll have you respond to him. [1:23] President Trump was very frustrated during Epic Fury, especially at the start where we had either allies that didn't cooperate with our use of our own bases or even, more importantly, were very negative on the efforts politically with their statements. [1:37] And I think that was incredibly frustrating for many of us that know, to President Trump's point, that he made the world better with Iran not being on a path to getting a nuclear weapon. [1:48] And so, we have to make sure that our allies are with us politically and militarily at all times. [1:55] What do you make of some of this tension among allies? [1:59] Yeah, well, first off, I think Ambassador Whitaker is doing a great job and he's explaining that there was real frustration in Washington when we asked for the use of airfields or bases that we have in Europe and were denied in a couple of cases by some of those European allies. [2:16] Not all. [2:17] In fact, the majority supported, but there were some who said no. [2:21] That shouldn't happen. [2:22] Now, part of the reason that happened is we took everybody by surprise. [2:27] No one knew this war was coming. [2:29] They didn't know we were going to launch these attacks. [2:31] Everybody was flat-footed. [2:33] And President Trump has repeatedly said we don't need anyone's help, and yet it would have been nice if they offered. [2:39] So, I think he's right to share with allies that frustration. [2:44] But I think allies have now had time to really sink their teeth into this, understand the current situation, which is a ceasefire that is tenuous. [2:54] And I think you're going to find at the NATO summit, allies are going to be willing to help the United States when it comes to future security arrangements for the Persian Gulf. [3:04] But we've got to have clarity as to what the final deal is, which we still don't have. [3:09] We've got to have clarity about what the military operation would be, and then allies can step in and play their role. [3:16] How tricky is the role of NATO Secretary General right now in terms of promoting unity within the alliance? [3:22] Yeah, it is very tricky because you have President Trump expressing a lot of frustration with NATO, whether it's on defense spending or, just as you said the other day, claiming that we get nothing out of NATO, which I don't agree with. [3:34] But you have President Trump saying that. [3:36] And on the other hand, you have allies that are deeply unhappy with President Trump. [3:41] So, in that context, it is very difficult for the Secretary General to keep everybody on the same page. [3:46] And I have to say, I think he's doing an excellent job. [3:49] Turkey, the host nation, is at best a complicated NATO ally. [3:55] What about President Erdogan being the host of this summit? [3:59] Yeah, I think if anyone in NATO could have picked a country to host this summit this time, it would be Turkey. [4:07] Erdogan is a strong leader. [4:09] President Trump respects him. [4:11] He doesn't want to show up in Turkey and destroy the NATO summit that he's hosting. [4:16] The U.S. has other interests with Turkey outside of NATO, such as in dealing with Iran, such as in dealing with Syria, and even in dealing with Lebanon. [4:26] So, President Trump is going to be careful to make sure we are working with Turkey across the board and not want to interrupt or disrupt this NATO summit that's being held there. [4:38] I think this is very positive, in fact, that you're going to have President Trump going there with the view of making sure this is a successful meeting. [4:46] In the months after 9-11, Fox sent me to Afghanistan. [4:49] And I remember our NATO allies being there to support the mission in Afghanistan. [4:54] How important is it for Americans to remember that NATO was there for us after the 9-11 attacks? [5:02] Yeah, it's critically important. [5:04] The only time that NATO's Article 5, the collective defense commitment, was invoked was in response to the attacks on the United States. [5:12] It was never invoked to protect anyone in Europe because we've been able to deter attacks within Europe. [5:18] And that's what NATO is for, is to prevent aggression. [5:21] And it works really, really well. [5:24] If we were not working together with NATO on that, we would have already had bigger wars in Europe affecting our allies. [5:30] And then, as you mentioned, when we have taken on operations in America's interests, whether it was the war in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, bombing campaign in Syria, Bosnia, Kosovo, our allies have always been there. [5:47] And right after 9-11, they were helping patrol the skies over North America. [5:53] They brought their aircraft here to make sure that there were not any more airborne threats to American cities. [5:58] So, we get a lot out of NATO. [6:00] We do a lot with NATO. [6:02] And we're better off in a world where there are lots of free and prosperous democratic countries to work together. [6:08] Okay, so we're nearly out of time, but we're not expecting major news necessarily. [6:13] But do you think maybe a friendlier gathering of NATO? [6:16] Yeah, I think it will be a friendlier gathering of NATO. [6:19] I think there will be a renewed commitment to high levels of defense spending. [6:23] There will be an announcement that the U.S. is going to review our force posture in Europe, and we want Europe to pick up some of the slack. [6:29] That's a good thing. [6:30] I don't think anyone should be afraid of that. [6:32] That's the kind of thing we should do. [6:34] And I think there will be renewed commitments both from Europeans about Iran and from the United States about helping bring an end to Russia's war against Ukraine. [6:44] Ambassador Kurt Volker, thanks very much for your analysis today. [6:49] My pleasure. [6:49] Thank you. [6:50] Hey, everyone. [6:51] I'm Emily Campagno. [6:52] Catch me and my co-hosts Harris Balkner and Kayleigh McEnany on Outnumbered every weekday at 12 p.m. Eastern or set your DVR. [7:01] Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page for daily highlights. [7:05] So,ook. [7:06] Thank you. [7:06] Thank you, guys. [7:08] Bye-bye. [7:08] And now you come to join us. [7:14] Bye-bye. [7:16] Bye-bye. [7:17] Peace. [7:17] Bye-bye. [7:19] Bye-bye. [7:26] Bye-bye. [7:29] Bye bye. [7:29] Bye-bye. [7:30] Bye-bye. [7:35] Bye-bye.