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'European elites have to pitch in': Steve Bannon says NATO has become 'a US protectorate, not an alliance'
16 January 2024, 19:46
Steve Bannon, the outspoken former adviser to Donald Trump, has branded NATO a "protectorate, not an alliance" as he called for European elites to "pitch in".
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Mr Bannon, who wants a less interventionist US foreign policy, told LBC's Andrew Marr that NATO, which was set up after the Second World War to provide security against the Soviet Union, had become "an American security guarantee" for Europe.
NATO member states are meant to put 2% of their GDP into their annual military budgets. But just seven of 30 NATO member states in 2022, the latest figures available - despite Russia invading Ukraine, a NATO neighbour in February that year.
The seven who contributed 2% or more were the US, UK, Greece, Poland and the three Baltic states. Eight members met the required military spending rate the year before.
Mr Bannon, a controversial figure for his right-wing views, denied that Mr Trump wanted to "cut ties" with NATO if he regained the US presidency in November.
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Mr Bannon, who served in Mr Trump's White House from 2016-2017, told Andrew: "What we’ve always argued for, and I argued with the national security advisors of the individual countries, is we want it to be an alliance. That means, like England and like Poland, you have to meet the minimum of the 2% of GDP to throw into the pot."
He added that "more importantly, you have to have a military that has interoperability - it’s actually an alliance. It's not an alliance right now. It's basically an American security guarantee of European freedom and that can’t happen.
"You can’t have countries in Europe that have healthcare, six week vacations, pension funds, and the American people have none of that, because we have a trillion-dollar defence budget."
Ex-chief strategist to Trump Steve Bannon says they're 'training up 3000 people'
Mr Bannon claimed that "the wealthy in Europe… have dodged this bullet [of defence spending] since the Second World War. Outside of England and some partisan resistance in other parts of Europe, in Eastern Europe, we fought alone with England in World War Two.
"The elites abandoned us to fascism that time - we’re not going to allow it this time. The elites of Europe have got to pitch in". Many European countries fought in the Second World War.
Mr Bannon said that ensuring higher defence spending from other NATO members would also suit those countries.
"Europe doesn’t want to be a protectorate of the United States," he said. "We want a strong, robust alliance and we’ve wanted that from day one."
Mr Bannon, who is widely considered to have been an architect of Mr Trump's 2016 victory, left the White House in August 2017. He is said to have endured an up-and-down relationship with Mr Trump since then, with the former president calling him 'Sloppy Steve' at one point.
But Mr Bannon told Andrew that he would return to the White House to serve under Mr Trump if he was asked.
He also said that a group of 3,000 Trump-supporting would-be officials have been trained to operate the levers of power if his former boss returns to the White House.
Mr Bannon said that this would help Mr Trump bypass the so-called "deep state" that he claimed frustrated his efforts in his first term.
"These are people that have the populist MAGA, America first agenda," Mr Bannon said. "We're working on those policies now.
"He will 'hit the beach' with people that are like-minded and tough and know what we have to do this time."
