Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said Monday that “US credibility is at stake” in the wake of comments from former President Donald Trump that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO partners that don’t meet spending guidelines on defense.
Asked by “NBC Nightly News” about Trump’s admission that he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of NATO if reelected, Brown said that the alliance is strong and has been around for 75 years.
“I think we have a responsibility to uphold those alliances,” Brown told NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview airing Monday evening. “US credibility is at stake with each of our alliances, and US leadership is still needed, wanted, and watched.”
Trump pulled out of pretty much every deal and treaty Obama had made and started trade wars with US allies. This has made diplomacy significantly harder for the US because now we all know that any deal we make with the US is only good until possibly the next election. This means it will be harder for the US to make any deal with any nation and the US are as reliant on global trade as everyone else. It’s similar to Brexit where the UK leadership basically told all their allies to eat shit. It’s going to be a while until they get any good deals with the EU.