Trump Asked Point Blank If NATO Is 'Sacrosanct' In Front Of Former NATO Secretary General

On Thursday, President Trump was asked about NATO.

Transcript

00:00What can Norway do to prove that they're an important ally to the U.S.?

00:05What can Norway do to prove that?

00:06Just keep doing what they're doing.

00:07We have a very good relationship with Norway.

00:10Great leader, great people.

00:12I know many of the people in Norway.

00:15And it's truly an incredible country.

00:18So all they have to do is keep doing what they're doing,

00:21I think is probably the best answer I can give.

00:23As you pointed out, the former Secretary General of NATO is here,

00:29Mr. Stoltenberg.

00:30How important is the NATO Defense Alliance, Mr. President?

00:34Is it sacrosanct from your perspective?

00:37Well, it's a very interesting question.

00:39It's certainly very important for Europe.

00:41And I think without us, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful.

00:45And as the former Secretary General, who did a great job,

00:50can tell you, we played, I played, when I was there,

00:54a very big role in making sure that NATO is funded

00:58by the 28 — at that time, they had 28 countries, including us,

01:02because many of the countries weren't paid.

01:04And they ended up being paid, you would say.

01:08And the Secretary General was very nice about it,

01:13as far as I was concerned.

01:15Other presidents went in, they made a speech, and they left.

01:18And that kept going on.

01:19And, you know, in the meantime, they had no money.

01:22And the United States was paying far more than its fair share.

01:25You could say that they were paying — I actually said sometimes

01:28it looked like 100 percent, and it was unfair.

01:32And the two of us worked very well together,

01:36and we took care of the situation.

01:38Thank you so much.