A debate over NATO’s mission, or how to update the organization, would normally be welcome, but President-elect Trump’s suggestion that the alliance is obsolete is clumsy and reckless. Trump’s statement dropped like a grenade into the already-roiling post-election debate over his fondness for Russia’s dictatorial president, Vladimir Putin.

Trump seems to regard NATO as a geopolitical favor that America does for the rest of the world. “Countries aren’t paying their fair share,” he told the Times of London on Monday, “a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States.”