Trump Said U.S. Is ‘Getting Raped’ by NATO, Has Pushed to Exit Alliance According to White House Insider – Newsweek

President Donald Trump's criticisms of NATO have been one of the most concerning elements of his presidency to date for career diplomats and Pentagon officials.

A new book written by an anonymous White House insider published this week has shed further light on the president's aversion to the Cold War-era alliance, alleging Trump claimed the U.S. is "getting raped" by its allies and pushed to ditch the accord.

A Warning, by Anonymous, was published earlier this week. It is written by the same unnamed White House official who authored an op-ed for The New York Times last year, claiming to be part of "the resistance" against Trump within his own administration, working to frustrate much of the president's policy agenda.

A portion of the book is dedicated to Trump's belligerent stance on NATO. Since coming into office, the president has repeatedly maligned the alliance and its members, accusing members of not spending enough on joint defense and suggesting the transatlantic bloc is no longer fit for purpose.

Trump even publicly questioned Article 5, the cornerstone of the alliance which requires NATO nations to come to the defense of a member if it is attacked. The article has only been involved once in NATO's 70-year history, by the U.S. following the 9/11 attacks.

According to Anonymous, Trump "has repeatedly astounded advisors" by suggesting he wishes to withdraw from NATO, which is underpinned by American money and military might.

"This would be a huge gift to the Russians, who have long opposed the twenty-nine nation group," Anonymous wrote.

Trump has been accused of aligning foreign policy with that of Russiawhether consciously or otherwisebut withdrawing the U.S. from NATO would hand the Kremlin a priceless, and previously unthinkable, foreign policy victory.

The president's main problem with NATO is financial, though it also plays into his anti-multilateral and isolationist instincts.

"The president tells us we are 'getting raped' because other countries are spending far less to be a part of it, adding that the organization is 'obsolete,'" Anonymous explained.

But Anonymous vocalized the view of many analysts by explaining that the U.S. is "the most powerful nation on Earth, and the investments we make in the NATO alliance allow us to project our influence globally to stop danger before it comes our way."

"Leaving the alliance would not only be foolish but suicidalan advertisement to foreign enemies that it's open season against Western countries, left to fend for themselves," the author continued.

Indeed, last year's NATO summit was consumed by Trump's attacks on fellow leaders and demands to address "burden sharing." A minority of NATO's members are currently fulfilling the commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defenseagreed at the 2014 summit in the U.K.much to Trump's frustration.

The Statista infographic below shows that the U.S. spends by far the most on its military than any other NATO nation. However, the U.S. is also by far the largest economy within the alliance, and in its dominance of the bloc means fellow member states host a vast network of American bases and troops.

Still, the U.S. spends the largest proportion of its GDP of any NATO country on its military, at 3.5 percent. The next closest is Greece at 2.3 percent.

At the 2018 Brussels meeting, Trump even reportedly threatened other leaders with withdrawing the U.S., though did not follow through. He later took credit for vast defense spending increases by fellow nations, though French President Emmanuel Macron quickly challenged the interpretation.

Trump will travel to London next month to meet with fellow NATO leaders, and will no doubt again demand fairer "burden sharing."

This article has been updated to include an infographic.

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Trump Said U.S. Is 'Getting Raped' by NATO, Has Pushed to Exit Alliance According to White House Insider - Newsweek