President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed the U.S. should have triggered NATO’s mutual defense clause to advance his domestic agenda on immigration after provoking outrage with his comments that NATO troops “stayed off the frontlines” in Afghanistan.
“Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Thursday night.
Trump has indeed already tested the NATO alliance with his push to acquire Greenland, the Arctic island controlled by Denmark, a fellow NATO member.
Article 5 states that if one NATO member is attacked, all members should come to its assistance. The clause has only been invoked once — on behalf of the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. NATO troops fought in Afghanistan alongside U.S. soldiers against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Earlier on Thursday, in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump questioned the sacrifice of NATO troops, claiming they stayed off the frontline.
