So it was a bit jarring to hear Bolton, a former member of the George W. Bush administration, criticize Trump, who will accept the GOP’s presidential nomination Thursday night.
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Eastern European Northern Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) members, long in the habit of accusing Russia of aggressive plans to target them, were apparently given a cold shower by the United States presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who cast doubt over Washington’s commitment to defend them, Russia Today TV channel reported.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he totally disagreed with Trump’s statement, but would “chalk it up to a rookie mistake”.
Campaign Manager Paul Manafort insisted Trump was misquoted by the Times, prompting the paper to publish a transcript of the conversation.
Trump told the New York Times that Washington would only come to the aid of other members if they had “fulfilled their obligations to us”.
In an interview with The Washington Post editorial board published March 21, Trump called North Atlantic Treaty Organisation a “good thing to have” but said it was obsolete and no longer affordable in an era of large USA deficits. But he pointedly added, ‘Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States’.
According to Pavel, Trump is “Single-handedly undoing the hard, sustained, decades-long work of building US global credibility previously undertaken by strategists such as Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissinger”. The committee, which has issued subpoenas to learn the names of those working on fetal tissue research. “In principle, he is saying the US will not fulfill its promises or obligations”, he said of Trump’s plan to base USA support on how much alliance members spend on defense. But he’d clearly caught the headlines, and he quietly rebuked the ideas Trump had laid out, calling NATO “the most successful security alliance” and saying, “We need to stand behind our Article 5 guarantee of NATO with every NATO member”. “It is the essence of the alliance”.
“It is true, however”, Corker added, “that many of us on both sides of the aisle are becoming exasperated that most members of the alliance are not honoring their obligations”.
But it is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a party’s presidential nominee to suggest that members of the alliance formed after World War II could not necessarily rely on US protection from a Russian invasion.
It “did not serve him well”, Blackburn said.
And Trump suggested that the USA shouldn’t chide Erdogan’s administration about potential violations of civil liberties because “when the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger”.
Asked if Mr Trump had made a gaffe with his comments, Mr Johnson said: “It’s not for me to get involved in the politics of this election campaign going on in America”. “Or as Taylor Swift would say, ‘Shake it off'”.
“The only problem is that there are other audiences watching this as well”, Hannah said.
“European Allies are also stepping up”, he said. A day earlier, Haslam did offer full praise of Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a staunch conservative, as his running mate.
“Trump as president would have an enormous amount of discretion”, said Barry Bosworth, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former White House staffer.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who isn’t at the convention, said, “Statements like these make the world more risky and the United States less safe. I’m saying, right now there are many countries that have not fulfilled their obligations to us”.
