During an exchange of words broadcast on Tuesday, former leader Donald Trump, a candidate for the US presidential election, insisted that his recent threats to NATO were primarily “a way to negotiate” with the alliance, according to AFP.

The Republican billionaire caused panic in Europe when he threatened in February that NATO countries would no longer be guaranteed protection from Russia if they did not pay their dues.

His comments were heavily criticized by several European leaders and his Democratic rival, US President Joe Biden.

“It’s a way of negotiating,” said the boisterous seventy-year-old during a face-to-face conversation with Nigel Farage, a spokesman for the British far-right.

“The US has to pay its share, not everyone else,” the former businessman told GB News.

Donald Trump also boasted that his words saved NATO’s coffers.

“They started paying after those comments you saw two or three weeks ago,” he said, without giving an example.

The Republican, who will face Democratic President Joe Biden in November’s election, regularly criticizes NATO allies for falling short of their military spending commitments.

“Remember that all this is more important to them than to us, we have an ocean that separates us from certain issues,” he stressed on Tuesday. “The great and beautiful ocean.”