Donald Trump has been huffing and puffing about the need of America’s NATO allies to spend the required 2.0 percent of gross domestic product on defense — and has suggested that as president he wouldn’t honor the U.S. commitment to defend NATO allies under attack if that ally (or NATO countries generally, he’s not always clear on these things) isn’t living up to that commitment.

This is, in my view, extremely reckless and amounts to an invitation to Vladimir Putin’s Russia to gobble up all or part of the Baltic states — NATO allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — as it has gobbled up part of non-NATO ally Ukraine.