According to sources citing the Guardian website on February 11th, Donald Trump, who is seeking a second presidential term and may receive a Republican nomination in the 2024 US presidential election, said he will "encourage" Russia to attack NATO allies he believes have not fulfilled their financial obligations.
Trump made the above remarks at a campaign rally held in Conway, South Carolina on the 10th. The state will hold the Republican primary on February 24th.
The former president expressed doubts about providing assistance to Ukraine and the existence of NATO.
According to reports, Trump claimed that he had told a head of state at a NATO meeting that under his leadership, the United States would not protect any country that owed fees.
Trump said, "The president of a major country asked me, 'If we don't pay but are attacked by Russia, will you protect us?' I said, 'If you default on fees, then I won't protect you. In fact, I will encourage them to do whatever they want. You must pay the bill.'"
According to reports, although some people suspect that this conversation has really happened, Trump's remarks quickly alerted many political analysts in the United States.
Microsoft National Broadcasting Corporation analyst David Cohen said on social media platform X, "It sounds like Trump is encouraging Russia to attack our NATO allies."
Conservative political commentator Alisa Farah Griffin said that Trump's remarks are "as pleasing as music" to Russian leader Putin.
According to CCTV News on February 9th, on February 8th local time, former US President Trump won the Nevada Republican caucus election. This means that Trump is going further in his pursuit of the Republican nomination for this year's presidential election. Previously, Trump had won Republican primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the US Virgin Islands.
It is reported that in 2021, Nevada, USA passed several new election laws that require Republican and Democratic voters to vote in state government organized primaries, rather than in previous party primaries. But the Republican Party opposes this law and has stated that it will not grant partisan support to the primary winners. In addition, the new law only requires political parties to conduct primary elections organized by state governments, and does not exclude political parties from continuing to organize intra party primaries,
Therefore, in addition to the primary vote organized by the Nevada state government in accordance with state law on February 6th this year, the Republican Party also held an intra party primaries, also known as the Nevada Republican caucus elections, on February 8th. The winner of the Nevada Republican caucus election will receive the support of all 26 Republican representatives in the state, while the winner of the primary election held under the state's new election law will not receive the support of the state's Republican representatives.
Former US President Trump's only challenger within the Republican Party and former US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, ran as a Republican candidate in the state government's primary but did not win. Biden, on the Democratic side, won the Democratic primary in Nevada on February 6th.
The primary election is the first stage of the US presidential election, with two forms: direct voting and caucus meetings. After the primary election, both parties will hold national congresses to formally nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates. The voting day for this year's US election is November 5th.