During a rambling interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Donald Trump managed to confuse the North Atlantic Treaty Organization security alliance (NATO) with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The former president began by saying other countries learned “not to mess around” with him when it came to trade and then bragged about trade deals he made while in the White House.
“Did they fear me? I suspect they did,” he said. Trump continued by talking about the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea:
Putin said, “Man, you are killing me, especially about Nord Stream.” And I stopped it. It was stopped cold. And I told other countries, “If you go into the Nord Stream, you are not going to do any business with the United States of America,” meaning rip us off on trade because a lot of them have ripped us off. I made a lot of great deals on trade, though. I changed a lot of those deals where it was a bad deal for us and now it’s good, like USMCA with NATO. I got rid of NATO and built USMCA. I made a great trade deal with China. Our farmers, to this day they made tremendous money because of the deal.
As president, Trump axed NAFTA in favor of a new deal – the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA). NATO is of course a security alliance among 30 member states, including the U.S.
Hannity didn’t challenge Trump on the mixup.
Hannity also remarked about “Joe Biden’s cognitive struggling” and asked Trump if he would take a cognitive test again.
“I would like to see it for anybody running for president, taking a cognitive test,” Trump said. “You know they do it in China, but it’s done in a different way. They have a caste system. And the smartest person gets to the top.”
The last cognitive test Trump took was when he famously repeated the words: “Person, woman, man, camera, TV,” a test he insisted was very difficult.
Watch:
Donald Trump: "I got rid of NATO and built USMCA." pic.twitter.com/6yLn37SwMa
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) March 29, 2023