Trump’s dangerously wrong about Nato – and if he wins, he’ll hang us out to dry

Does anyone think Donald Trump would commit American lives and billions to protect Latvia, or Poland, or even France? He couldn’t find them on a map, let alone be relied upon to defend Nato allies, writes Sean O’Grady

Perhaps Trump, the great New Yorker, has forgotten that the Nato allies immediately stood by America after 9/11 (Reuters)

It’s difficult to know where to start with Donald Trump. He is, as we have discovered, a deeply dangerous man – and a clear and obvious threat to the security of the United States and the Western alliance.

The fact that he doesn’t understand or value the concept of collective security is as good a place as any to begin. Trump, appealing as ever to the base, talks to Nato allies like “delinquent” tenants in one of his tower blocks behind on the rent and subject to eviction: “You gotta pay your bills.”

Delinquent or not, this is no way to treat your closest friends – nations with shared values and common interests, facing the same foes in the world, and which have fought together and mingled blood in too many dusty battlefields.