Julianne Smith, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said she is "not worried" for the alliance if former President Donald Trump wins his bid for the White House in 2024.
Smith made her remarks during a Politico gala on Wednesday.
"The NATO alliance enjoys deep bipartisan support across Congress and amongst the American people," she said. "And I'm not worried. I think he knows that it's in a really good spot back home."
Trump, who has announced his candidacy for president, was a frequent critic of the alliance, which was established to counterbalance the rise of the Soviet Union when World War II ended, Politico noted.
Trump threatened in 2018 that the U.S. would go its "own way" if other nations in the alliance didn't up their NATO financial commitments. After his remarks, a "majority" of NATO members have now committed more on defense.
In March of this year, Trump said in a statement: "There should be no war waging now in Ukraine, and it is terrible for humanity that [President Joe] Biden, NATO, and the West have failed so terribly in allowing it to start.
"Instead of showing strength and toughness, they declared the global warming hoax as the #1 threat to global security, killed American energy independence, and then made Europe, the U.S., and the rest of the world dependent on Russian oil."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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