Panelists on “Morning Joe” asked outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg questions about the U.S. election in a bid to criticize former President Donald Trump Friday morning, but Stoltenberg instead argued the former president was right on certain issues.
Stoltenberg, who is stepping down as leader of the organization in October, appeared on the MSNBC program while the United Nations General Assembly met in New York. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire asked Stoltenberg about the U.S. election and Trump, only for Stoltenberg to defend the former president when Robinson asked if Europe felt “trepidation” about the election.
WATCH:
“The criticism from the U.S. and also former President Trump has not mainly been against NATO. It has been against NATO allies not spending enough on NATO, and that was right, but that has changed because a few years ago, very few allies spent 2%, now many allies are spending much more than 2%, and the U.S. is no longer the biggest spender based on GDP or a share of the GDP,” Stoltenberg explained to Robinson. “Poland and the Baltic countries are spending more share of the GDP than the United States. So this has really improved the burden sharing within the alliance.”
Trump again criticized NATO members for not abiding by an agreement to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense in February after the former president repeatedly pressured American allies during his term. Stoltenberg also noted that Trump sent Ukraine Javelin anti-tank missiles during his administration, following a question from Lemire.
“It’s not for me to speak on behalf of any of the candidates, but I just know that when I worked with former President Trump, we had the issue of Javelins, and he actually stepped up the military support to Ukraine and provided Javelins,” the outgoing Secretary-General said. “So, well, it is in the U.S. security interest to ensure that European allies and the United States enable Ukrainians to stop the Russian invaders, and I expect that to be the position of our elections.”
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