The United States has a long tradition of helping its allies and making its enemies stand up and take note, says former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, but President Barack Obama has changed that.
"If you go back through Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson and president after president, the United States has tended, not perfectly, but tended to be a good friend to our friends and allies and reliable," Rumsfeld said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. "
"We've tended to be a caution for our enemies and opponents who are working against our values. We've lost that."
Story continues below video.
The Obama administration has broken from a long line of presidents from both parties, Rumsfeld said and is projecting weakness to the world. In addition to a
weak foreign policy on Ukraine, America's credit rating has been downgraded and it is modeling its economy on Europe.
That, Rumsfeld said, "is sending a signal out to the world that the United States is not going to be there in the five, 10 years ahead."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.