In his first term, President Trump episodically threatened to pull out of NATO, removing the United States as the linchpin of the most successful military alliance in modern times. In his second term, he is trying a different approach: hollowing it out from within.
Mr. Trump’s decision to reverse three years of unity in aiding Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and open negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin has forced NATO leaders to confront a fundamental question: If Mr. Putin decided to pick off a member of the alliance, is there any reason to assume Mr. Trump would come to that country’s defense, the key to its strength?
“We have to assume not,” a senior member of the German government said at the Munich Security Conference, declining to speak on the record because of the huge sensitivity of his conclusion. In one short month as president, he and others contended, Mr. Trump has undercut the trust that sits at the center of the 75-year-old defense pact, that an attack on one member of the alliance would bring a response by all, led by the United States.
That fear has only accelerated in the past day, since Mr. Trump began echoing Mr. Putin’s talking points, falsely accusing Ukraine of provoking the invasion of its own territory and casting Russia as the aggrieved party rather than the aggressor. It is a rewriting of modern history that has left the NATO allies stunned and questioning the viability of an alliance with Washington at the center.
Mr. Trump’s decision to reverse three years of unity in aiding Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and open negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin has forced NATO leaders to confront a fundamental question: If Mr. Putin decided to pick off a member of the alliance, is there any reason to assume Mr. Trump would come to that country’s defense, the key to its strength?
“We have to assume not,” a senior member of the German government said at the Munich Security Conference, declining to speak on the record because of the huge sensitivity of his conclusion. In one short month as president, he and others contended, Mr. Trump has undercut the trust that sits at the center of the 75-year-old defense pact, that an attack on one member of the alliance would bring a response by all, led by the United States.
That fear has only accelerated in the past day, since Mr. Trump began echoing Mr. Putin’s talking points, falsely accusing Ukraine of provoking the invasion of its own territory and casting Russia as the aggrieved party rather than the aggressor. It is a rewriting of modern history that has left the NATO allies stunned and questioning the viability of an alliance with Washington at the center.
