Or if China takes aggressive action in the South China Sea, threatening our Asian allies as well as our own freedom of navigation, will our Western allies
risk the economic repercussions of confronting China to stand beside an “America First” president who refuses to affirm our NATO commitments?
At NATO, the president’s reckless refusal to reaffirm our commitment to the defense of our allies under Article
5, while hectoring them publicly about their military spending, made our allies conclude they must go it alone.
Congress must insist, on a bipartisan basis, that the United States continue to play its traditional
leadership role, by fully funding both defense and our foreign assistance programs.
With shocking speed, he has wreaked havoc: hobbling our core alliances, jettisoning American values
and abdicating United States leadership of the world.
And now the president has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, putting us at odds with virtually the entire world.
The president’s budget would slash funding for the United States Agency for International Development
and the State Department by nearly 30 percent, rendering our embassies vulnerable to attack and shuttering vital programs that advance our interests.
This work began promptly on Jan. 23, when the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
leaving key allies empty-handed, fearful of the strategic benefit that will inevitably accrue to China.
Most Americans surely still see the benefits of the United States being the strongest, most trusted and respected country in the world.
