When the former president has privately discussed the United States’ role in the transatlantic military alliance this year, Trump has made clear that he doesn’t want the upper ranks of a second administration to be staffed by “NATO lovers,” according to two sources who’ve heard him make such comments.
One former senior administration official recalls to Rolling Stone a moment in the Oval Office in mid-2018 when the then-president started reading from a written list of smaller NATO countries, some of which he argued most Americans had never even heard of before.
Trump then vented that “starting World War III” over some of these countries’ sovereignty made absolutely no sense, and that he shouldn’t be forced to automatically commit American troops to any such crisis.
But this time around, an array of nationalist allies and pro-Trump policy wonks have been eager to offer the ex-president frameworks for how to MAGA-fy the U.S. approach to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Bolton recounted a number of attempts in which Trump, frustrated by an impression that NATO members were stiffing the U.S. on an imagined tab, alternately threatened to leave or reduce America’s commitment to the Atlantic alliance, only to have the threats walked back by staff.
The measure would tie up any attempt at a formal withdrawal in Congress but would not prevent a future Trump administration from undermining confidence in the U.S. security guarantees implicit in the alliance.
The original article contains 1,243 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
When the former president has privately discussed the United States’ role in the transatlantic military alliance this year, Trump has made clear that he doesn’t want the upper ranks of a second administration to be staffed by “NATO lovers,” according to two sources who’ve heard him make such comments.
One former senior administration official recalls to Rolling Stone a moment in the Oval Office in mid-2018 when the then-president started reading from a written list of smaller NATO countries, some of which he argued most Americans had never even heard of before.
Trump then vented that “starting World War III” over some of these countries’ sovereignty made absolutely no sense, and that he shouldn’t be forced to automatically commit American troops to any such crisis.
But this time around, an array of nationalist allies and pro-Trump policy wonks have been eager to offer the ex-president frameworks for how to MAGA-fy the U.S. approach to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Bolton recounted a number of attempts in which Trump, frustrated by an impression that NATO members were stiffing the U.S. on an imagined tab, alternately threatened to leave or reduce America’s commitment to the Atlantic alliance, only to have the threats walked back by staff.
The measure would tie up any attempt at a formal withdrawal in Congress but would not prevent a future Trump administration from undermining confidence in the U.S. security guarantees implicit in the alliance.
The original article contains 1,243 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!