--- title: President Trump’s Montenegro Comments Were A Win for Putin description: The history between Montenegro and Russia gave the remarks broader implications canonical: https://time.com/5341790/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-montenegro-nato/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-18T20:01:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:17.568Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Trump’s Comments About Montenegro Were A Win for Putin og:description: "Once more I think President Trump is doing Putin’s job." og:url: https://time.com/5341790/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-montenegro-nato/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e45ec3830112dcf/6988cf62ab6d77689d6ae4f1/trump-markovic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Belgium NATO Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Trump’s Comments About Montenegro Were A Win for Putin twitter:description: "Once more I think President Trump is doing Putin’s job." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e45ec3830112dcf/6988cf62ab6d77689d6ae4f1/trump-markovic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why President Trump's Comments About Montenegro Were a Win for Vladimir Putin > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0a1ffa44-1d95-4c89-8f7d-70928aa645e1&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 'NATO Is Much Stronger Now': Trump Claims Victory After Contentious Summit [Watch (HLS stream): 'NATO Is Much Stronger Now': Trump Claims Victory After Contentious Summit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mHWuzoXm.m3u8) (2:55)  _Published 2018-07-12. As a contentious North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels began to wind down on Thursday, President Donald Trump claimed victory over defense spending and reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the alliance._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 18, 2018 8:01 PM UTC  Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, center right, after appearing to be pushed by Donald Trump, center, during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, on May 25, 2017. Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, center right, after appearing to be pushed by Donald Trump, center, during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, on May 25, 2017. Matt Dunham—AP  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 18, 2018 8:01 PM UTC President Donald Trump raised eyebrows Tuesday night when he questioned a key provision of the NATO alliance that requires member states to treat an attack on one as an attack on all, and to respond accordingly. It wasn’t the first time Trump appeared skeptical of NATO’s core promise, a position unthinkable for any U.S. President since the organization was started in 1949\. But his comments garnered widespread around given Trump’s recent and controversial bonhomie towards Russian President Vladimir Putin. During an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the anchor asked Trump about his [opinion on Article 5,](https://www.nato.int/cps/ua/natohq/topics%5F110496.htm) NATO’s joint defense agreement, in relation to NATO’s newest member. “So, let’s say Montenegro, which joined \[NATO\] last year, is attacked, why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack? Why is that?” Carlson asked Trump. “I understand what you’re saying. I’ve asked the same question,” Trump replied. “Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They have very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and congratulations, you’re in World War III, now I understand that. But that’s the way it was set up.” Trump went on to express his dissatisfaction with the way NATO is funded, arguing it was unfair that the United States contributes more towards its defense budget than other members. “Add that to your little equation on Montenegro,” Trump told Carlson. Trump’s skepticism towards Article 5 aligns with his distrust of multinational organizations in general, from the United Nations to the World Trade Organization. But NATO, first formed to counter potential Soviet aggression in Europe, is seen by many as a check on Russian ambitions in Eastern Europe under a leader who has demonstrated a willingness to annex territory through military might. And Montenegro, a small Balkan nation southwest of Serbia, is considered particularly vulnerable. Some experts and commentators, then, say President Trump’s posture towards NATO, and particularly Montenegro, are disconcerting given Trump’s recent reluctance to criticize Putin. “The moment you start creating some relative notion about whether we should start defending certain allies because they are small or big, then you start sowing doubt,” said Fabrice Pothier, formerly NATO’s director of policy planning. “Once more I think President Trump is doing Putin’s job.” Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a frequent critic of Trump’s behavior towards Putin, had a similar reaction. “By attacking Montenegro and questioning our obligations under NATO, the President is playing right into Putin’s hands,” McCain wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. Andrew Weiss, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, [said](https://twitter.com/andrewsweiss/status/1019588067684945920) the President was “parroting Kremlin talking points.” Whether or not it was intentional, singling out Montenegro was a curious choice for both Carlson and Trump. Given the size of its country — its population is under 630,000 — its invitation to NATO clearly wasn’t based on military or financial strength. Instead, it’s seen as a key geopolitical asset for the group, a check against Putin in the Russian leader’s proverbial backyard. And once a part of NATO, a country is generally believed impervious to Russian aggression, lest Putin invite the retaliation of the other member states. “It’s more geographical value to NATO than anything else,” Pothier says of Montenegro. “It’s a way to say to Russia and others, ‘you can’t meddle and you can’t play geopolitics in the Western Balkans because we are part of the Western Balkans.'” Indeed, Russia was certainly unhappy in 2015, when Montenegro officially received an invitation to join NATO, with the Kremlin [promising retaliation](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/world/europe/kerry-nato-syria-russia.html) shortly thereafter. Montenegro officially joined NATO last June; but eight months before that, the country accused Russia of backing a failed coup in the country, which Moscow [denies](http://time.com/4673038/dusko-markovic-montenegro-russia-nato/). “Russia interfered with our election process,” Marković [told TIME’s Simon Shuster](http://time.com/4673038/dusko-markovic-montenegro-russia-nato/) in an interview last year. “Their \[security\] services were in touch with politicians, with the Orthodox Church, with NGOs, with some media outlets. An environment was created in which the pro-Western forces were supposed to lose.” In a vacuum, Trump’s comments about NATO and Montenegro might be written off as little more than a dealmaker trying to extract concessions — Trump wants member states to contribute more of their GDP to defense spending, after all. But given his controversially warm attitude towards Putin as of late, experts are questioning whether Trump is merely saber-rattling or could truly do away with a decades-old cornerstone of international relations. “Interpreting Trump’s comments is a treacherous business, he says one thing at noon and another at 1 p.m.” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served in the Obama Administration. “But yes, if I were a member of NATO and saw the most powerful country in the alliance repeatedly question the American commitment to stand by collective defense, I would be unsettled.” ## Transcript Thank you very much everybody. I've appreciated. We've had a very amazing today period in Brussels and we really accomplished a lot with respect to NATO. For years president have been coming to these meetings and talked about the expense the tremendous expense to the United States and Tremendous progress has been made, everyone's agreed to substantially up their commitment. They're going to up it at levels that they've never thought of before and the United States commitment to NATO is very strong, remains very strong, but primarily because everyone, the spirit they have The amount of money they're willing to spend. The additional money that they will be putting up has been really amazing to see it. To see the level of spirit in that room is incredible. And I hope that we're going to be able to get along with Russia. I think that we probably will be able to. The people in the room think so, but they nevertheless, they really stepped up their commitment. Can you tell us whether or not you've warned people that the US would pull out of NATO if they weren't meeting their spending goals? I told people that I'd be very unhappy if they didn't up their commitments very substantially because the United States has Been paying a tremendous amount, probably 90 % of the costs of NATO. And now people are going to start, and countries are going to start upping their commitments. So I let them know yesterday actually, I was surprised that you didn't pick it up, it took until today. But yesterday, I let them know that I was extremely unhappy With what was happening. And then today and yesterday I was probably a little bit more firm. But I believe in NATO, I think NATO's a very important, probably the greatest ever done, but the United States was paying for, Anywhere from 70 to 90 % of it depending on the way you calculate, that's not fair to the United States. There are critics that say by creating this scene here at NATO, you're only enabling President Putin in Russia to further disturb things in Ukraine and Georgia. Well, if you consider putting up tremendously You know the additional funds at a level nobody's ever seen before. I don't think that's helping Russia. Are you still threatening to potentially pull the United States out of NATO for any reason and do you believe you can do that without Congress' explicit support and approval? I think I probably can, but that's unnecessary. And the people have stepped up today like they've never stepped up before. And remember, the word $ 33 billion more they're paying. And you'll hear that from the Secretary General in a little while. He thanked me actually. He actually thanked me. And everybody in the room Thank me. There is a great [ INAUDIBLE ] spirit in that room that I don't think they've had in many years. They're very strong. So yeah, very unified, very strong, no problem, right? We're in NATO, no no, okay. 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