Former President Donald Trump embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statement that he would prefer to see President Joe Biden win reelection in 2024 over Trump, calling Putin’s apparent preference a “compliment.”
Trump made the remarks while speaking to supporters at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 15th, just 10 days ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary between Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
“Now that’s a compliment,” Trump told the enthusiastic crowd after being informed of Putin’s comments on Russian state television just hours earlier. Putin had been asked which American presidential candidate would be “better for us,” to which he responded, “Biden. He is a more experienced, predictable person, a politician of the old school…But we will work with any U.S. president who the American people have confidence in.”
Trump Offered No Evidence for Claim Putin Fears His Potential Reelection
However, Trump offered no evidence to support his assertion that Putin’s stated preference of Biden stemmed from fear over the potential for a second Trump term. In fact, most foreign policy experts believe precisely the opposite – that Putin would prefer Trump given his frequent praise of the authoritarian leader and long-held stances seen as favorable to Russian interests.
Throughout his presidency, Trump was often accused of being overly-deferential toward Putin while frequently attacking and undermining America’s NATO allies. The Western military alliance has played a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s brutal invasion over the past year.
Just days earlier, Trump had sparked global outrage by suggesting he may not honor NATO’s collective defense commitments if member states did not contribute more money. The former president has repeatedly criticized NATO while echoing frequent talking points used by the Putin regime to undermine the alliance. Trump’s attitude toward NATO has been cited by critics as emblematic of his broader hostility toward America’s democratic allies coupled with consistent praise of autocrats like Putin.
President Biden and other world leaders have suggested Putin likely relishes the instability Trump created within Western alliances while failing to firmly confront Russian aggression. They argue that the Russian leader clearly favored Trump in 2016 and would welcome his return.
Haley Denounces Trump’s Comments Undermining NATO
Back in South Carolina, Governor Haley has made Trump’s comments about NATO a central line of attack as she challenges the former president for the Republican nomination. Haley told CNN earlier this week that while NATO allies should “pay more” and “carry their weight,” the alliance remains a “success story” that has maintained peace in Europe for over 70 years.
She blasted Trump’s recent remarks as “the idea that he is siding with a man who kills his opponents,” referring to Putin’s attempts to assassinate political rivals.
President Biden also unleashed on his predecessor during a speech on February 15th, stating: “Can you imagine a former President of the United States saying that? The whole world heard it. And the worst thing is he means it.”
Biden argued Trump essentially “gave an invitation to Putin to invade” NATO member states by signaling he may not honor America’s commitments to the alliance. He called Trump’s posture toward Putin unprecedented from an American president.
Trump Defends NATO Comments While Attacking Allies
During his rally later that night, Trump doubled down on his controversial NATO remarks while simultaneously claiming he would “not ‘protect’ NATO countries if they ‘don’t pay the bills.'” He appeared to suggest NATO member states must meet some unspecified monetary threshold to retain America’s military backing.
Trump did not address Biden or Haley’s fierce denunciations of his comments earlier that day. Nor did he revisit Putin’s stated preference for Biden winning again in 2024 beyond calling it a “compliment.
Foreign policy experts have warned that Trump’s loose rhetoric toward America’s most important military alliance plays right into Putin’s hands. It aligns with Russia’s long-running disinformation campaigns seeking to undermine European confidence in NATO’s security guarantees.
They argue such careless language from a former American president, even if theoretically conditional, weakens the united front NATO is attempting to project against potential Russian aggression. It also forces NATO officials and European leaders to reiterate America’s steadfast commitment to the alliance in response.
Some analysts have even suggested Trump’s continued NATO-bashing even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should lead to a fundamental rethinking of how the alliance safeguards sensitive intelligence and operational information from the former president.
While most experts agree NATO allies should contribute more to collective security efforts, they note most members have significantly increased their defense budgets in recent years. And they maintain the long-term success of the alliance depends far more on unwavering transatlantic unity in deterring Russian aggression under Article 5 than on arbitrary spending metrics.
Ideological Alignment Between Trump and Putin Hard to Ignore
Nonetheless, Trump’s seeming admiration for Putin along with his penchant for lavishing praise on authoritarian leaders around the world while undermining democratic allies does beg deeper questions.
The ideological alignment between Trump’s conservative populist nationalism and Putin’s authoritarian, revanchist vision appears consistently more in sync than Trump ever demonstrated with the values of NATO member states he led as president.
Trump’s transactional view of NATO centered on demonizing those not meeting his monetary demands rather than leading a united alliance of democracies. His ongoing tolerance of Russian land grabs tests the very purpose of a defense pact designed to prevent such actions.
Most historians argue modern American presidents of both parties, for all their faults, held far more reverence for NATO and Europe’s democracies than Trump has displayed before and since leaving office.
They say weakening the most successful military alliance in history to own partisan opponents or chase campaign rally applause has become an unfortunate feature of America’s polarized politics. Responsible leadership requires placing fundamental national interests over personal whims or political grievances, even for a former president.
Until that happens more consistently across both political parties, Putin may continue exploiting America’s internal divisions rather than confronting the kind of united transatlantic opposition that could force Russia to reconsider its aggressive ambitions. The future security and prosperity of both Europe and North America may depend on it.
