Republican candidate says as president he would not pressure the likes of Turkey to moderate purges and it was ‘time to take care of America first’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Donald Trump has suggested that under his leadership America would not necessarily come to the aid of a Nato ally under attack, saying he would first consider how much they have contributed to the alliance.

Speaking to the New York Times in Cleveland on the night before he was due to accept the Republican nomination for president, Trump also warned that, if elected, he would not pressure Turkey or other authoritarian allies to end crackdowns on political opponents or the suppression of civil liberties.

Trump repeated his insistence that other countries should start sharing more of the defence costs long borne by Washington.

Claiming that US allies would understand his new approach to collective self-defence, Trump said it could involve cancelling treaties he believes place too great a burden on the US.

Trump told the paper he would “prefer to be able to continue” with existing agreements, but only if unnamed individual countries ended their dependence on American largesse.

That approach – a tenet of the nationalistic “America First” theme he has developed during his campaign for the nomination – could even extend to the 28 members of Nato.

Trump offered an equivocal reply when asked if the US military would automatically protect Baltic states against Russian aggression, saying that he would gauge their contribution to the alliance.

“If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes,” he said.

On the recent thwarted coup in Turkey, Trump said the US should try to “fix our own mess” before interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries.

“I don’t think we have a right to lecture,” he said. “Look at what is happening in our country. How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?”

Trump gave notice that he was prepared to ditch the postwar internationalist tradition inside the Republican party in favour of an approach to foreign affairs that hinged solely on American economic interests.

The country’s role as peacekeeper and protector of human rights – and its responsibilities as a provider of nuclear deterrence - he suggested, would only continue if they came with some form of economic benefit to the US.

He repeated his threat to withdraw US forces around the world, a policy that has sparked alarm in countries such as Japan and South Korea, which host tens of thousands of American troops.

“We are spending a fortune on military in order to lose $800bn [in trade losses],” Trump said. “That doesn’t sound very smart to me.”

