President Donald Trump veered into politics during a speech to U.S. military cadets on Saturday – taking a clear swipe at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) once again in the process.
NATO is a political and military alliance of 30 countries from Europe and two North America committed to protecting each other from any threat.
During remarks meant to congratulate cadets graduating from West Point Military Academy in New York, Trump said: “We’ve been ripped off by every nation in the world on trade. We’ve been ripped off at the NATO level.”
He added: “We’ve been ripped off like no country has ever been ripped off, but they don’t rip us off anymore.”
Wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat, he also took credit for the might of the US military, which has long been considered the strongest in the world.
“You will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known,” he said, addressing graduating cadets.
“And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”
He went on to say they’re “getting rid of distractions” and focusing on what he called a “core mission” – “crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before”.
“The job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,” he added, a reference to drag shows on military bases that President Joe Biden’s administration halted after Republican criticism.
