If you needed any more evidence that Donald Trump is seriously unhinged and disconnected from the real world, his statements about NATO to the New York Times have to be some of the most bizarre things he’s said yet.

Trump is explicitly saying he won’t help NATO allies even if they are attacked by Russia, unless he feels they’re paying the United States enough: Donald Trump Sets Conditions for Defending NATO Allies Against Attack.

And he’ll make that evaluation only after a US ally is attacked.

CLEVELAND — Donald J. Trump, on the eve of accepting the Republican nomination for president, explicitly raised new questions on Wednesday about his commitment to automatically defending NATO allies if they are attacked, saying he would first look at their contributions to the alliance.

Asked about Russia’s threatening activities, which have unnerved the small Baltic States that are among the more recent entrants into NATO, Mr. Trump said that if Russia attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing if those nations have “fulfilled their obligations to us.”

“If they fulfill their obligations to us,” he added, “the answer is yes.”

Even John Bolton thinks Trump has gone off the rails.

“When an American leader says ‘I’ll look at what the situation is after the Russians attack,’ that is an open invitation to Vladimir Putin,” Bolton said.

“When he (Putin) reads this kind of statement, it’s an encouragement to him. We’re not deterring him, we’re in effect giving him a free hand. So I hope that whoever advised Mr. Trump on this rethinks it,” Bolton said.

Make no mistake; this statement from Trump is so far out of the norm, it’s truly frightening. He’s talking about subverting one of the most important trans-national defense agreements in history, and blithely bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war.