1

Nato allies would be forced to step-up their efforts

Donald Trump said that as president he would call a Nato summit to pressure allies who had failed to hit spending targets and move the focus of the bloc away from Russia and onto terrorism and migration.

Calling both the mission and structure of Nato “outdated”, the property mogul noted that just four of 28 countries were spending the required two per cent of GDP on defence.

“Our allies are not paying their fair share,” he said. “Our allies must contribute toward the financial, political and human costs of our tremendous security burden, but many of them are simply not doing so.”

Trump said that leaders of European and Asian allies had begun to view the US as “weak and forgiving”, but would face a stark choice if he became commander-in-chief.

“The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defence, and if not the US must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves,” he said. “We have no choice.”

2

President Obama and Hillary Clinton ruined America

Trump saved his harshest critiques for Barack Obama as well as Hillary Clinton, his probable general election opponent and Obama’s former secretary of state.

The billionaire businessman accused the current administration of lacking “moral clarity”, and bringing “humiliation” to the American people.

“If President Obama’s goal had been to weaken America he could not have done a better job,” Trump alleged.

He accused the president of loosening ties with key allies like Israel at a time when he was treating Iran with “tender loving care”, insisting that such blurred lines between friends and foes would not exist once he was in the Oval Office.

Trump also said Clinton had “misled the nation” over the attacks in Benghazi that left Chris Stevens, a US ambassador, and three other Americans dead.

“And by the way,” he added, “she was not awake to take that call at three o’clock in the morning, and now [Daesh] is making millions and millions of dollars a week selling Libya oil.”

3

Ease tensions with Russia and influence China

Trump vowed to improve relations with both China and Russia “from a position of strength”.

US relations with Russia have been strained over issues, including Moscow’s support for Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian president.

The probable Republican presidential nominee said: “I believe an easing of tensions with Russia, from a position of strength only, is absolutely possible.”

Trump said he would seek to cooperate with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in fighting global terrorism but if it didn’t work he would “quickly walk from the table”.

He said China “respects strength and by letting them take advantage of us economically we have lost all their respect”.

Trump said he would use US economic leverage to persuade China to rein in North Korea’s nuclear programme and that would be “very persuasive”.

He did not speak extensively about trade but in the past has indicated he might introduce tariffs of up to 45 per cent on Chinese goods to protect US manufacturing jobs.

Trump also did not mention his previous controversial suggestion that Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weapons.

4 Under Trump, Daesh would disappear ‘very, very quickly’

Trump said if he is president, Daesh — who call themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — would be “gone “very, very quickly” but did not say how.

He said: “Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them where and I won’t tell them how. We must as a nation be more unpredictable.”

The billionaire said he would have a long-term plan to stop the spread of radical Islam, but again did not go into detail.

He said: “Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States and indeed the world. Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical struggle like our long struggle in the Cold War.”

5 Work with allies in the Middle East.

He said: “We’re going to be working very closely with our allies in the Muslim world, all of which are at risk from radical Islamic violence. We’re going to help, but they have to appreciate what we’ve done for them.”

Trump said the threat was also “within our homeland” and added: “We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies.”

— Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2016