Trump says he once told a NATO ally to pay its share or he’d ‘encourage’ Russia to do what it wanted

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio defended former President Donald Trump’s controversial comment that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to a NATO member country that didn’t meet defense spending guidelines.

“That’s not what happened, and that’s not how I view that statement,” the Florida Republican argued Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked whether he was comfortable with Trump’s suggestion that he wouldn’t defend NATO countries.

Rubio went on to note that the US did not leave NATO during Trump’s presidency — though Trump made private threats about withdrawing multiple times, according to The New York Times.