Jim Townsend: NATO adjusted to Trump’s style

AlArabiya English

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Jim Townsend says that NATO leaders had to adapt to President Trump’s tone and style during his first term.

Transcript

00:00Yes, so basically we got Munich in February. Four months after that, the NATO summit. And

00:04I just want to ask you whether you see NATO changing significantly during the second term

00:11of President Trump? Because in the first term, it was in for a few shocks, wasn't it?

00:16Well, I think in the first term, the Allies had to get used to being spoken to the way

00:22Trump speaks to them. In the past, of course, the US presidents have been very diplomatic

00:28and politicians as well. And so they were easier to get along with. Trump's a very different

00:34person, very different personality, has some grievances about Europe. And so he was very

00:40direct. And they had to get used to dealing with that, as well as his tactics of threatening

00:46to withdraw from NATO and that type of thing.

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