well during his four years at the white
house donald trump has
undone deals and splintered alliances
like no other u.s president before him
when trump finally does leave the white
house joe biden says he wants to
redefine the us's position on many
issues
from the paris climate accord to its
place at the u.n
washington's tone towards nato also
shifted dramatically under the trump
administration
but as terry schultz finds out that may
have actually helped the alliance
nato trains for defending itself in
plenty of hostile environments
but president trump's politics sometimes
presented
a new challenge for the alliance attacks
from within
germany trump set the tone for his
relationship with nato on his
first visit to headquarters push came to
shove
immediately in more ways than one
in his prepared remarks prepared by his
staff
he was supposed to recommit to nato's
article 5
mutual defense clause and he
deliberately avoided doing that
at what was meant to be a somber
reflection on solidarity with memorials
to 911 and the berlin wall
trump focused on allies low defense
spending many of these nations
owe massive amounts of money from past
years
and not paying in those past years
and that sent a signal which even though
he later
did say the magic words after a lot of
coaxing and coaching
you know that signal was out there those
magic
words all for one and one for all
nato's bedrock but hard for trump to say
the one he tends to focus on is himself
because of me they've raised about 40
billion dollars over the last year
so i think the secretary general likes
trump
trump has consistently distorted facts
about how nato
is funded which is primarily nations
investing in their own militaries
but one of his talking points is
partially true though he can't take
credit for europeans reversing spending
declines which started years before he
took office
his constant pressure likely did
encourage allies to bump up their
budgets as fast as they could
and that says outgoing u.s ambassador to
nato k bailey hutchison
is a positive legacy we have done so
much that's good
and i think the president pushed hard
for nato allies to
step up and they've done it and nato is
stronger and more unified
than ever before she expects a smooth
transition to president-elect biden
there's no doubt that he will be a
transatlanticist he will believe in nato
he will support nato
and the american leadership of nato
but is it possible the trump spotlight
might actually be missed
the alliance has never gotten so much
attention so many headlines
such fervent support from the u.s
congress paul taylor thinks a return to
traditional policy making
will be welcome i remember an estonian
official saying to me
uh in about 2018 when trump came to
brussels for a nato summit
said you know frankly the the end of
nato may be just a tweet away
former administration officials say
trump talked of wanting to quit
nato but in the end he just may have
come around
when french president emmanuel macron
last year called the alliance brain dead
trump blasted him saying you just can't
go around making statements like that
about
nato it's very disrespectful