Donald Trump is 'setting preconditions for withdrawing from NATO', his former advisor tells LBC

13 February 2025, 17:42 | Updated: 13 February 2025, 19:41

Donald Trump is getting ready to take America out of Nato, his former security advisor has told LBC.

John Bolton said the President could be using his controversial bid to end the war in Ukraine as a way of withdrawing from the transatlantic alliance.

The President has been accused of appeasement after engaging in "a lengthy and highly productive" phone conversation with the Russian dictator, during which they agreed that talks to end the conflict should start "immediately".

Any peace deal is expected to see Russia keep territory it has annexed since 2014, including the Crimean peninsula – a huge blow to Kyiv after three years of fighting for freedom. Ukraine joining Nato - an official policy of the alliance - has also been effectively ruled out.

John Bolton anticipates Trump will try and withdraw from NATO

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Mr Trump is demanding that European Nato powers commit to spending five per cent of GDP on defence - a level the US itself does not reach. The UK is one of the biggest spenders but only at 2.5 per cent.

Mr Bolton told Tom Swarbrick: "I think it's highly probable that Trump will try and withdraw the United States from NATO, and he's already setting preconditions that will justify it.

"You know, first he said back in his initial term, well, all these Europeans are not spending two per cent of GDP on defence, which they pledged to do at the Cardiff Nato summit in 2014.

"Now he's saying you need to spend five per cent of GDP on defence. I personally think that's what the US should spend. I think in a challenging world, we're not spending enough, and we're at about three now.

"But I suspect there's almost no country in Europe, maybe the Baltics and Poland and a few others that will go to five per cent. So in a year when it doesn't happen, Trump will be able to say, 'Nato is just as worthless as I always said it was. I'm getting out'."

Ukraine ‘must be at the heart’ of any peace negotiations, says Healey

When asked what the consequences of that could be, Mr Bolton added: "Look, when the US withdraws and calls its alliances into question and weakens its allies, you know, the status quo doesn't remain. Either chaos ensues or some adversary steps in to pick up the gap, which is why this is so dangerous.

"And Ukraine could well turn out to be the precipitating circumstance that leads to, if not American withdrawal, substantial decline in US participation in Nato."