International security

Trump’s NATO criticism wins positive reviews

Donald Trump’s criticisms of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are winning positive attention from analysts who argue the military alliance should be getting more scrutiny from Washington.

“When Trump talks about NATO being obsolete, it is dismissed as crazy rhetoric,” said Job Henning, a defense analyst who recently wrote a piece advocating for broad reform of the alliance. “But he is actually asking questions that are pretty similar to what a lot of people have been asking.

Trump made headlines over the weekend by questioning NATO’s relevance and arguing its members aren’t paying their fair share. The comments came just before NATO officials arrived in Washington for meetings with President Obama and the Pentagon.

“Either they pay up, including for past deficiencies, or they have to get out. And if it breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO,” Trump said Saturday in an interview with The Washington Post.