Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed Japan, an ally of the United States, can “sit home and watch Sony television” if the U.S. is ever attacked.
“You know we have a treaty with Japan, where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the United States,” Trump said during an appearance in Iowa on Friday. “If we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to do anything. They can sit home and watch Sony television, OK?”
Trump told The New York Times in July that he would judge NATO members’ spending on security before helping them face down a potential invasion. The businessman had previously stated he wants Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and NATO countries to “pay up.”
“They owe us tremendously, we’re taking care of all those people and what I want them to do is pay up,” he said in June.
Earlier this week, a group of foreign policy experts ― including several Republicans ― denounced what they called the “disgraceful” Trump comments on NATO, along with his call for Russia to find Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s missing emails from her time as U.S. secretary of state.
