21 November 2024
Donald Trump said on 20 November that he has chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as the next US ambassador to NATO. In a statement, Trump said Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability— He will put AMERICA FIRST”. Whitaker had been considered a potential pick for attorney general, a position Trump instead gave to Matt Gaetz.
Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience. He is a former US attorney in Iowa and briefly served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019 as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close. Whitaker held the position for several months, on an acting basis and without Senate confirmation. He has also been actively involved with the America First Policy Institute, a right-leaning think tank that has been working to shape policy for Trump's second term.
Previous US ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience. Trump’s first-term NATO ambassador, former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, did not, although she had been involved in foreign policy issues while in Congress. Those selected for the role in recent years have included retired Gen. Douglas Lute, the current US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, former acting deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and diplomacy academics who previously served on the US National Security Council such as Ivo Daalder and Kurt Volker. Biden's choice for the role, and current serving US ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, was his deputy national security adviser when he served as vice president from 2009 to 2017.
The president-elect has expressed scepticism about NATO for years. During his 2016 campaign, Trump alarmed allies by warning that the United States, under his leadership, might abandon its NATO treaty commitments and only come to the defence of countries that meet the transatlantic alliance’s defence spending targets. Earlier this year, Trump said that, when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent”.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general at the time, said in response that “any suggestion that we are not there to protect and defend all Allies will undermine the security of all of us and put at risk our soldiers”. NATO reported earlier this year that 18 member countries were now meeting the benchmark of spending 2% of their GDP on defence— up from just three in 2014. Trump has often tried to take credit for that increase, which was largely spurred by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The president-elect has also promised to quickly negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, which could require Ukraine to make major concessions to Moscow. NATO countries have spent billions of dollars of aid shoring up Ukraine’s military. Supporters of the president-elect say the force of Trump’s personality and his "peace through strength" approach will help bend foreign leaders to his will and calm what Republicans describe as a "world on fire" amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Opponents argue a more erratic and transactional Washington under Trump is likely to strain longstanding US alliances and undercut Western support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.