I tend to ignore most of what Donald Trump says for what I assume are obvious reasons.

There’s an informal school of thought which argues that’s dangerous — that Trump fully intends to do exactly what he says and that assuming otherwise is to sleepwalk into an autocratic nightmare.

I don’t actually disagree with that contention. But if Trump’s talking, he’s either saying something outlandish or getting around to it. There was a time, early in his presidency, when the media attempted to catalogue his bombast and count his untruths. That ceased to be practical a very long time ago.

Trump’s 2024 campaign (if that’s what you want to call it) is just a dark, openly seditious stand-up comedy tour interspersed with court appearances. There’s nothing he won’t say, and everyone generally understands that. Which means nothing he says is surprising.

Of course, just because Trump’s rhetoric isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s not alarming, and given his i) history with Volodymyr Zelensky, ii) penchant for derision regarding anything to do with NATO and iii) role in dooming a border security-foreign aid compromise on Capitol Hill, I’d be remiss not mention Trump’s latest riff on the “fair share” NATO talking point.

The idea that NATO countries are freeloaders in an alliance which ultimately amounts to a no-questions-asked, free-of-charge US security guarantee is… well, a little bit true, frankly. But Trump habitually mischaracterizes the situation, sometimes (most of the time) on purpose and other times because he genuinely doesn’t understand the specifics of the commitments. The dispute isn’t over unpaid dues, as he tends to pitch it to the American electorate. It’s over domestic military expenditures among member nations, some of which aren’t committing as much to defense as they’re supposed to commit as a share of their own GDP. It scarcely matters: If there’s a third world war, whether the constellation of NATO member states did or didn’t hit their domestic military expenditure targets in previous years isn’t going to be the deciding factor. But it’s about principle, I guess.

During a campaign stop in South Carolina (where he told the crowd that their own Nikki Haley “wants to go to war with everybody and wants to kill people”), Trump said that when he was in charge, he got NATO to “pay up.” “NATO was busted until I came along,” he mused, adding the following,

I said ‘Everybody’s gonna pay,’ and they said ‘Well, if we don’t pay are you still going to protect us?’ I said ‘Absolutely not.’ They couldn’t believe the answer and everybody — you never saw more money pour in. The Secretary General Stoltenberg — I don’t know if he is anymore — he was my biggest fan, he said ‘All these presidents came in they’d make a speech, they’d leave and that’d be it and they all owed money and they wouldn’t pay it.’ I came in, I made a speech and I said ‘You gotta pay up.’ They asked me that question. One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said ‘Well sir, uh, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ ‘No I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.’ You gotta pay your bills!

A few things. First, that didn’t happen. Or if it did, it didn’t go like that. Second, and as noted above, Trump’s mischaracterizing the dispute. Nobody owes him any money. Third, this is a man who believes not paying taxes is evidence of financial acumen and whose businesses have declared bankruptcy half a dozen times, which is to say his businesses in some cases “didn’t pay,” were “delinquent” and were “protected” despite what I assume were creditors shouting, “You gotta pay your bills!”

“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged,” The White House said Sunday, in a statement responding to Trump’s remarks. “It endangers American national security, global stability and our economy at home.”

At the same rally, Trump said aid to foreign countries should be doled out as loans, because in some cases, recipient nations might find a new benefactor, at which point they’d “drop us like a dog — like a female drops a male after a date.” He went on to suggest that’s what could happen with Ukraine. “We’re already into Ukraine for over $200 billion and they could make a deal with Russia in the next three weeks and all of a sudden they don’t want to deal with us anymore and we’d be out hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Later, Trump walked through his version of the events which got him impeached the first time — the “perfect call” narrative. The truth, of course, is that Trump tried to trade US weapons for an investigation into Joe Biden’s family, a clumsy effort that was subsequently exposed and spelled out in painful detail by a veritable procession of witnesses.

At the South Carolina rally, Trump said he “still likes Zelensky,” but insisted the war’s “gotta end.” “Do you notice, you don’t hear about that war anymore,” he told the crowd. “Do you know why? Because they’re not doing well, that’s why. We gotta get that war settled and I’ll get it settled.”

Trump’s remarks came as Zelensky worked to reshuffle military personnel in Ukraine, and as Putin openly called for a settlement — on the Kremlin’s terms. “It seems to me that now those who are in power in the West have come to realize [Russia won’t suffer strategic defeat on the battlefield],” Putin told Tucker Carlson, during a wildly meandering interview on February 6. “If so — if that realization has set in — they have to think what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue.”