If Trump says that he will leave NATO countries without assistance if they do not spend 2% of GDP on defense needs, then his words should be believed.
This was noted by political technologist Mikhail Sheitelman on the air of Apostrophe TV.
He says: we should not think that this is only election rhetoric. The political technologist recalls how in 2016 Trump said that, if he won the election, he would cancel the health care reform of the time of Barack Obama (the so-called Obamacare). "Once he got into the White House, Trump just did that," Sheitelman concludes.
The expert mentions that Trump also promised to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. "He also fulfilled that promise, but then other factors - separation of powers, checks and balances - came into play, and Trump was unable to do much of what he promised."
Later on the air, Mikhail noted the following: "Now he can report to his voters, as it were. He said, look, only 4 of the European NATO countries previously spent 2% of GDP on defense, and now there are already 10 countries. Although here it's about the Russian threat, not about the factor of Trump's policy".
The political technologist notes that Trump's attacks on NATO countries and threats to withdraw the US out of the Alliance are aimed at his core voters, "...which, roughly speaking, is about 20% of the constituency."
Consequently, Mikhail suggests: "Trump needs another notional 31% of the votes to win. The question is how much this category of US voters is interested in the topic of foreign policy and strengthening NATO's defense capabilities. About 80% of US citizens, even if they are told that the Russian Federation is already preparing an attack on Estonia, will not be particularly worried."
The political strategist believes that "...NATO, Russia's aggression against Ukraine, and the Kremlin's possible attack on the Baltic states are secondary issues for the American voter." He recalls that Americans are quite logically thinking about their own domestic problems, among which the main topic is migration and the wall on the border with Mexico. These are the issues that will determine the course of the race.
"Accordingly, Trump, attacking NATO, talking about how he will "stop the war" against Ukraine, makes it clear that all this is necessary in order to free up time and resources to deal with domestic problems. This is exactly what the American voter is reacting to," Sheitelman notes.
Earlier we wrote that Donald Trump has won a convincing victory in the first Republican presidential primary held on Monday in Iowa.