President-elect Donald Trump, who has long criticized NATO as overly reliant on American money, on Wednesday nominated loyalist Matthew Whitaker to the crucial post of ambassador to the alliance.
“Matt is a strong warrior and loyal Patriot, who will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended,” Trump said in a statement.
“Matt will strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability – He will put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said.
Trump and NATO
NATO has been bracing for Trump’s return to the White House after he threatened in February to stop guaranteeing US protection for member states if he did not believe they contributed enough financially.
Greek Reporter spoke to geopolitical strategist and Washington insider John Sitilides who said that Trump has made very clear in his first term and what he probably intends to do again is to persuade our NATO allies that they need to take more serious steps to defend their own sovereign nations against external threats.
“This is a concern that has been expressed by US presidents dating back to George W. Bush in the early 2000s, by Barack Obama, much more bluntly obviously by Donald Trump in his first term and even more subtly again by Joe Biden.”
The Greek-American expert notes that Europe is not an amalgam of poor countries that were destroyed by World War II.
“We have powerful economies such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain and France. And so one wonders why aren’t they taking their defense more seriously if they feel genuinely threatened, especially now by Russian aggression in Ukraine, by increased concern over Iranian both nuclear weapons development and a more powerful and accurate ballistic missile arsenal that they are developing. And of course the potential threats of terrorism and the waves of illegal migration from Northern Africa.”
Sitilides, who chaired the State Department’s Advanced Area Studies Program for Southeast Europe (under a US government contract) at the Foreign Service Institute, the primary training institution for US diplomats and other foreign policy professionals, between 2006-2023, recalled that at the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, all NATO countries pledged to a minimum 2 percent of GDP to be spent on self-defense.
“And here we are 10 years later and countries like Spain and Italy are spending 1.3 percent, 1.5 percent. Germany is struggling to stay above 2 percent.”
US praises Greece for defense spending
The US praised Greece for spending more than 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense, well above the 2 percent guideline.
“The United States praised Greece for exceeding its Wales Summit commitment by spending more than 3.5% of its GDP on defense, with more than 45% of that amount used to buy major equipment and for modernization,” according to a joint statement released Friday following the Fifth Strategic Dialogue meeting held in Washington co-chaired by visiting Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapteritis and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
UNlike Greece, Sitilides argues that most European allies don’t have the proper priorities in place regarding collective defense.
“What you’re going to see from President Trump again in the second is stronger pressure, blunter pressure, Trump style. These countries need to be serious about their self-defense and step up their own national budgetary commitments.”
Trump’s pledge to impose tariffs
European leaders are concerned that the President-elect has been doubling down on an “America First” economic policy, putting protectionism and business-friendly tax and regulatory pledges high on the agenda.
Former Trump administration officials have been warning Europe to expect Trump to take early action to increase tariffs — and to potentially bypass the Brussels bureaucracy in favor of dealing with individual European capitals on trade concerns, Politico reported recently.
“It’s a question right now to what extent some of the candidate Trump statements about tariffs are meant to be directly and translated into policy and how much of this is sort of pre-negotiation positioning,” Sitilides told Greek Reporter.
He said that the rhetoric is mainly directed against China which is dumping electric vehicles and excess industrial and labor capacity to markets worldwide.
“But even with several European Union countries, Donald Trump made very clear in his first term, and he probably still believes, that many countries unfairly close out their markets and access their markets to American industries and American labor. And what he’s going to be seeking most likely is reciprocity.
“If you are closing out your markets to our agricultural exports, we’re going to close our enormous American market to your agricultural exports. The same will apply to manufactured goods, technologies and the like. (13:54) And I think what Donald Trump is seeking is a level playing field.”
Sitilides believes that tariffs will be a sort of exclusive, narrowly tested negotiating process, but will be conducted in a larger context of the US foreign policy agenda with Europe.
“It’s not going to be a matter of free trade if it’s not also going to be what Trump considers to be fair trade.”
Related: What Greece, Cyprus Can Expect From Trump 2.0; Expert Weighs In
John Sitilides is Principal at Trilogy Advisors LLC in Washington, DC, specializing in US government relations, geopolitical risk, and international affairs, and Senior Fellow, National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
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