U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is allegedly mulling a deal in which NATO pledges not to expand eastward and as if negotiating with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on what part of Ukrainian territory Moscow can keep. Politico reports this, citing national security experts who support Trump, reports UNN.
According to interviews with former Trump national security officials and defense experts who are likely to serve during Trump's second term, Trump is reportedly unlikely to withdraw from NATO directly. But even if he doesn't officially leave the organization, that doesn't mean NATO will survive Trump's second term intact.
In exchange for continued U.S. involvement, Trump not only expects European countries to dramatically increase their spending on NATO (which was his main grievance when he was president), but also to undertake what one military expert familiar with the thinking in Trump's circle of national security advisers, Dan Caldwell, calls a "radical reorientation" of NATO.
"A quick resolution to the two-and-a-half-year Ukrainian conflict is also likely to play a key role in Trump's plans for NATO. As part of a previously unreported plan for Ukraine, the presumptive Republican nominee is mulling a deal in which NATO pledges not to expand eastward - particularly into Ukraine and Georgia - and is negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin over how much of the Ukrainian territory Moscow can keep," two national security experts who support Trump report.
According to two national security experts with ties to Trump and familiar with the thinking in Trump's inner circle, the presumptive Republican nominee is now considering making a deal with Putin on which countries can join NATO, particularly Ukraine and Georgia.
Politico reports that such a plan would end NATO's vague promise of Ukraine's future membership - a policy that Biden has continued, though he has not committed to a timeline.
In April, The Washington Post reported that Trump's preliminary plan also includes pressuring Ukraine to hand over Crimea and the Donbass border region to Russia.
"I expect a very quick agreement that will end the conflict," said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, an influential Trump-affiliated think tank that developed Project 2025. Roberts said in an interview that he could not provide any insider information about Trump's plans.
Заявление Трампа на дебатах по Украине создает ему место для "маневра" - эксперт28.06.2024, 14:35
But according to one national security expert familiar with Trump's thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Trump "would be open to something that rules out NATO expansion and doesn't return Ukraine to its 1991 borders. That would be on the table. But that doesn't mean rejecting every other possibility, including supplying a lot of weapons to Ukraine.
Trump himself has not publicly revealed his plans for Ukraine, but during the campaign he repeatedly vowed to end the war as one of his first tasks - "before I even get to the Oval Office, shortly after we win the election," he said at a rally in Philadelphia on June 22.
Asked on a June 21 podcast if he would be willing to drop the issue of NATO expansion into Ukraine, Trump responded - in remarks that were largely unpublished - that the promise of NATO membership for Ukraine was a "mistake" and "that's actually why this war started." Many in Trump's camp openly favor Ukraine out of NATO. "NATO has already expanded far beyond what we need for an anti-hegemonic coalition" against russia, Colby said.
Previously
Trump claimed at the debate that Ukraine will not win a war with rf.