of Donald Trump victory in the 2024 presidential election raises questions about America’s role in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will show once the new administration takes office.

Concerns have has already appeared that the alliance will no longer be able to rely on the generosity or support of its most powerful member at a time when a strong and centralized response to the threat posed by Russia is considered the most critical.

“NATO is based on stability, predictability,” said Ed Arnold, senior research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute. Newsweek. “And Trump is none of those things.”

Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

In addition to direct assistance, Arnold said there could also be concern among NATO and member state officials that they will be left out of the loop if Trump tries to negotiate a quick end to Russia.Ukraine conflict, as promised on the campaign trail.

“It is not certain that NATO as an organization would have a role in any negotiations with Russia … if there is any form of negotiation or dialogue that takes place when Trump comes into office,” he said.

These anxieties may be heightened by Trump’s announcement that Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth will be nominated for the position of Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has been a prominent critic of NATO as little more than a financial strain on the US

In his 2024 book, The War Against the Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the People Who Make Us Free, Hegseth wrote: “Why should America, Europe’s ’emergency hotline’ for the last century, listen to self-righteous and powerless nations asking us to honor outdated and unilateral defense arrangements they no longer respect?

“Maybe if NATO countries committed to their own defense, but they don’t. They’re just screaming about the rules as they point out their armies and cry out to America for help.”

Trump has frequently questioned America’s role in NATO, chastising allies for not playing their part, while publicly questioning US support.

Here are five things the president-elect had to say about the 75-year-old alliance.

NATO is costing the US too much

During his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump made several comments about the cost to America in the alliance.

In March of that year, the presidential candidate said Washington Post editorial board that while he did not want to withdraw from NATO, he was angry at the toll it had taken on US members.

“NATO was established at a different time. NATO was established when we were a richer country. We are not a rich country,” Trump said. “We borrow, we borrow all this money. We’re borrowing money from China, which is kind of an amazing situation. But things are much different”.

on the same day CNN Wolf Blitzer asked Trump if the US should “rethink engagement” in the alliance.

“Yes, because it’s costing us too much money, and frankly, they need to put in more money,” Trump said. “They’re going to have to put something in as well. We’re paying disproportionately, it’s too much, and frankly, it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived the idea and everyone came together.”

NATO is ‘obsolete’

Between 2016 and 2017, Trump said several times that he believed the Cold War-era alliance had outlived its usefulness.

“It was really designed for the Soviet Union, which no longer exists,” Trump said in April 2016. “It was not designed for terrorism.”

As reported New York TimesTrump doubled down on the statement, again calling the alliance “obsolete” at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin.

Citing a Washington Post Article of NATO’s creation of a new post focused on intelligence sharing in June, Trump tweeted: “See, when I said NATO was obsolete due to lack of protection against terrorism, they made the change without giving me credit.”

One post-election interview with The New York Times and Bild in January 2017, Trump defended his comments, saying, “I took so much heat when I said NATO is obsolete. It’s obsolete because it didn’t take care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right.”

Once inaugurated, however, the president changed his tune, telling reporters at a joint press conference with Secretary General Stoltenberg that he had reversed his positions on NATO’s obsolescence.

“I complained about it a long time ago and they made a change – and now they’re fighting terrorism,” Trump said. “I said it was out of date. It’s not out of date anymore.”

Other members don’t pull their weight

Trump’s main reservations about the alliance relate to the defense commitments of other members and his view that the US contributes a disproportionate and unfair share of NATO funding.

“The United States spends far more on NATO than any other country,” he tweeted in 2018. “This is neither fair nor acceptable.”

Before a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2019, Trump said the country would have to step up its military spending to the NATO-agreed target of 2 percent of GDP.

“It has to,” the president was quoted as saying by ABC. “Otherwise I’ll have to do something about the trade.”

Trump also called on the alliance to increase mandatory spending on members from 2 percent of GDP to 4 percent, a proposal recently backed by new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte amid Russia’s February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine.

“He is right about that,” Rutte said ahead of a meeting of the European Political Community. “You’re not going to get there with the 2 percent.”

The US is currently the alliance’s biggest joint benefactor, along with Germany, paying about 16 percent of the annual bill from 2024, according to a recent NATO funding report.

Encouraging Russia to do whatever it wants

During a February 2024 rally in South Carolina, Trump took this a step further, recounting an exchange he had with an unidentified head of state of a NATO member.

Trump told rally attendees that during his presidency, he attended a meeting hosted by then-Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when “one of the presidents of a big country” asked him: “‘Well, sir, if you don’t we pay too’ you are attacked by Russia, will you protect us?

“I said, ‘You haven’t paid. You are a delinquent,” Trump said. “No, I wouldn’t protect you, in fact I would encourage (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want.”

The comments were denounced across Europe, as well as by the president Joe Biden.

“Trump’s admission that he intends to give (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the green light for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression against the Polish people and the Baltic countries is appalling and dangerous,” Biden said in a statement.

“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines our security,” Stoltenberg told Norwegian broadcaster TV2.

Alliance support

In December 2019, Trump supported NATO and its members during a meeting with Stoltenberg.

Trump was asked about the comments made by the French president Emmanuel Macronwho in an interview with The Economist in November he declared that the alliance was facing “brain death”.

“I think it’s very insulting to a lot of different forces, including the man who’s doing a very good job leading NATO,” Trump said, gesturing to Stoltenberg. “No, it has a great purpose, especially with NATO becoming much more flexible in terms of what it looks at.

“It’s a harsh statement, though, when you make a statement like that. That’s a very—very, very ugly statement, essentially, for 28 countries, including them.

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