Shocking moment Donald Trump tells cheering crowd he would encourage Russia to attack fellow NATO members for 'not paying their dues'

Donald Trump has claimed he would encourage Russia to attack NATO members that fail to pay their share of the alliance's budget.

The ex-president made the alarming promise to incite a cheering crowd that took to the streets outside his rally in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday.

'The president of a great country stood up and said, “If we don't pay and we are attacked by Russia, will you protect us?” I said you haven't paid, are you overdue? He said, “Yes, let's say that happened.”

'No, I wouldn't protect you, in fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever they want, you have to pay! You have to pay your bills.'

Trump also repeated his frequent claim that as president he had pushed heavily armed European allies to pay more for defense.

'NATO was arrested until I joined. I said, “Everyone's going to pay.” They said, “Well, if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us?” I said, “Absolutely not.” “They couldn't believe the answer,” he said.

The White House called Trump's words “terrible and unhinged” and argued that they “promoted dangerous chaos.”

“President Biden has restored our alliances and made us stronger in the world because he knows that the first responsibility of every commander in chief is to keep the American people safe and true to the values ​​that unite us,” the report said.

“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is heinous and unhinged – and endangers America's national security, global stability, and our economy at home.

“Rather than calling for wars and promoting deranged chaos, President Biden will continue to strengthen America's leadership and stand up for our national security interests – not against them.”

Trump often claimed that he had single-handedly convinced NATO members to contribute more, but there is no record of this exchange ever taking place.

But NATO financing also does not work as Trump often claims and in his boasts does not correspond to reality.

No NATO member fails to pay its share of the alliance's $3 billion common budget, which is based on GDP and of which the US pays 16 percent.

Separately, in 2014 – before Trump even entered the presidential race – NATO members pledged to increase their defense spending.

A target of two percent of GDP by 2024 was set in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and defense spending by NATO's 29 countries has steadily increased.

This plan was devised long before Trump had any influence over NATO countries, but he has taken credit for it dozens of times over the past eight years.

Trump made the same completely false claim during a town hall in New Hampshire last month, arguing that NATO was “taking advantage” of the US.

'The European countries have benefited from… I want to use the word that starts with an S, but I don't want to do it because I see some young, very good-looking children in the audience, and I assume they are watching on television ', he said.

“But they took advantage of us in terms of trade, and then they took advantage of us in terms of our military protection.

'Of the 28 countries at the time, only eight countries had collapsed. We paid the difference.

“And I went to them. I said, “If you don't pay, we're not going to protect you.” And they said, “Are you serious?” I said, “I mean it.” And the next day, billions of dollars flowed into NATO.”

Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO several times during his presidency. He called NATO “outdated” and a drain on American resources.

This is despite the fact that the approximately $500 million the US pays in direct financing is dwarfed by the $842 billion defense budget.

Congress became so concerned that Trump could unilaterally withdraw from NATO if he won a second term that it passed a law in December requiring the president to obtain a two-thirds majority of the Senate to do so.

Trump has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and even sided with him over U.S. intelligence agencies when Putin denied his interference in the 2016 election.

Putin denied in his controversial interview with Tucker Carlson that he had any interest in attacking NATO countries such as Poland and the Baltic states.

'Only in one case, when Poland attacks Russia. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We are simply not interested. That is absolutely out of the question,” he said.

Trump's claim that he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies had eerie parallels to when he called on Russian hackers to find emails from Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the US presidential election.

“Russia, if you're listening. I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails,” he said in July 2016 during the election campaign.

Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow appeared to heed the call — targeting Clinton's personal office and more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts.

That was according to a grand jury indictment accusing 12 Russian military intelligence officers of hacking the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party as part of a sweeping Kremlin conspiracy to interfere in the election.