Republican frontrunner said if elected he would end the arrangement unless Saudi Arabia provided troops to fight Islamic State

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said he would consider stopping US oil purchases from Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies unless the Saudi government provide troops to fight Islamic State.

Trump made the comments in a lengthy foreign policy interview published by the New York Times on Saturday in response to a question about whether, if elected president, he would halt oil purchases from US allies unless they provided on-the-ground forces against Islamic State.

Hadley Freeman: in Donald Trump’s world, you’re classy or a loser. Which is he? Read more

“The answer is, probably yes,” Trump said, according to a transcript.

Trump has said the US should be reimbursed by the countries it provides protection, even those with vast resources such as Saudi Arabia, a top oil exporter.

“We’re not being reimbursed for the kind of tremendous service that we’re performing by protecting various countries. Now Saudi Arabia’s one of them.”

“If Saudi Arabia was without the cloak of American protection, I don’t think it would be around,” he told the Times.

As part of a foreign policy he summed up as “America First”, Trump also said he would consider allowing Japan and South Korea to build their own nuclear arsenals rather than depend on the US for protection against North Korea and China.

The phone interview was the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy for Trump, who has spent his entire career in business.

Trump said he was not an isolationist, but described the United States as a poor debtor nation that disproportionately funds international alliances such as Nato and the United Nations.

Similarly lopsided relationships exist with allies such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, he said.

“We have been disrespected, mocked and ripped off for many many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher,” he told the Times.

“So America first, yes, we will not be ripped off anymore. We’re going to be friendly with everybody, but we’re not going to be taken advantage of by anybody,” he said.

Talking about the rise of China, he argued that the best way to halt China’s placement of military airfields and antiaircraft batteries on reclaimed islands in the South China Sea was to threaten its access to American markets.

“We have tremendous economic power over China, and that’s the power of trade,” he said, without discussing Beijing’s capacity to retaliate.

He refused to elaborate on his plans for dealing with China, saying “I wouldn’t want them to know what my real thinking is.”

Trump also named in the interview retired Major General Gary Harrell, Major General Bert Mizusawa and retired Rear Admiral Charles Kubic as additional foreign policy advisors to the five named earlier this week who were criticised as obscure.

Trump has faced questions about his reluctance to reveal who was advising his campaign. He told the Times he was willing to rethink traditional US alliances should he become president.

Reuters contributed to this report