Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that President Trump’s comments about new NATO member Montenegro play into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to shatter the alliance.
The Arizona Republican sent out a series of tweets, after Trump wondered during a Fox News interview why the U.S. should respond if Montenegro was attacked, saying Putin had attempted to overthrow the government of the small European country and murder its prime minister.
“The people of Montenegro boldly withstood pressure from Putin’s Russia to embrace democracy. The Senate voted 97-2 supporting its accession to NATO,” McCain wrote in a tweet. “By attacking Montenegro and questioning our obligations under NATO, the president is playing right into Putin’s hands.”
The Senate, along with support from McCain, who is the Armed Services chairman, voted overwhelmingly in favor of admitting Montenegro into the 29-member alliance last year.
McCain also tweeted an op-ed he wrote last year saying that Putin was insulted and threatened by the ascension of Montenegro to NATO because it would put the Adriatic Sea in the alliance’s borders, and that Putin had wanted to have a strategic military base there.
Trump’s interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired Tuesday, a day after he held a widely criticized summit with Putin in Helsinki. During the discussion he said Montenegrin people are aggressive and could drag the U.S. into a global war.
“They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III,” Trump said.
Carlson asked why U.S. troops should be deployed to defend it against an attack.
“I understand what you’re saying, I’ve asked the same question,” Trump responded.
[Also read: John McCain rips Trump: ‘One of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory’]
