NATO Troop Drawdowns and Alliances

troop drawdowns in Europe, likely?

And are you satisfied with the progress that NATO

allies have made?

The President Well, we're going to see.

I was very disappointed with NATO.

And, frankly, if it weren't held in Turkey,

where my friend happens to be a very strong leader,

a very strong person, I — it's possible that I

wouldn't have attended.

I felt I had to attend because of the fact that,

you know, I know he's gone all out.

It was a big thing to have NATO come to Turkey or

anyplace else.

It's a big thing.

But we weren't treated well because we did

something in Iran.

We don't need anybody's help.

I didn't even want their help.

But before I asked, they said they wouldn't be

there.

And we've invested trillions of dollars in

NATO.

Why?

To protect European countries and others —

Canada, et cetera — but to protect people,

countries from — generally speaking, it used

to be the Soviet Union.

Now it's Russia.

And I say that's fine, but you would think that they'd be very willing to do something

to help us.

And they really weren't.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the prime minister, I guess he's no longer there, maybe

because of this.

It was a very unpopular thing he did.

He said, no, we'll help after the war is over.

I said, I don't need that kind of help.

We didn't need any help at all.

And in a way, I was testing people.

I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there, because I've long said that we help

them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us.

And Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down.

And that's OK.

But, you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they're not there

for us?

We've always been there for them.