one side wants to quit NATO

Lmao you really believed Trump wants to do that? It’s just rhetoric to buddy up with Russia against China like how the US allied with China against the USSR.

I believe personally it's him playing the part of tough dealing CEO man (one of his personas and his most popular one TBH) and doing this with the explicit intent of forcing European countries to meet or exceed their NATO funding commitments which they've always gotten a free ride on and that upsets him. It doesn't upset the CIA because they know for instance that the reason they get a free ride is because NATO makes them vassals, NATO means they can be pulled into our wars at our whims and that generates more value for us than making them pay the full share but Trump doesn't understand that, that's too complex for him in terms of reasoning. He thinks you can have your cake and eat it too.

He makes this threat, gets into office, makes it again, says if they want protection they have to pay. From a business-minded man it makes perfect sense. If you don't pay taxes for the fire department they stand by and watch your house burn down, if you don't pay insurance premiums they don't pay out for your treatment when you get cancer. It's all perfectly logical to him and he sees these countries as non-paying riders.