SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Foreign allies who want to understand President Trump’s approach to U.S. defense and foreign policy during his first year should pay more attention to what his administration does than what he tweets, said David Petraeus, the former CIA director.
“What I often offer to foreign leaders and so forth is certainly you have to read the tweets but don’t get mesmerized by the tweets,” Petraeus said.
Trump has questioned and criticized longtime allies and military alliances, often on Twitter, and has shaken up U.S. policy like few presidents before him. Earlier this year, he suggested the NATO alliance might be obsolete and scolded alliance partners over spending too little on defense.
“But if you follow the troops, follow the money, and follow the substance of the policy you’ll actually conclude that we are pursuing a national security policy that is more characterized by continuity than by change, despite some of the occasional lack of message discipline,” Petraeus said Saturday during the Reagan National Defense Forum here.
U.S. and NATO troops are moving into the Baltic region, and the administration is poised to spend more on its military commitments in Europe, he said.
Trump’s unconventional and combative style continues to grab headlines, and his slogan of ‘America First’ was panned by critics as a throwback to U.S. isolationism. Most recently it was his spat with British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this week over his retweets of anti-Muslim videos received a lot of public attention.
“I think we make too much of it [the dispute with May], frankly,” said retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff for the Army. “I think these politicians are thicker skinned than that.”
Despite the public political fireworks, Keane, Petraeus and others at the Reagan forum said the Trump administration’s work so far has been focused on developing closer military and defense ties overseas.
“Most of the leaders I’m talking to don’t interpret American foreign policy as ‘America first,’ they clearly recognize America is not talking about doing anything alone, that we are going to do it all in concert with our allies and partners,” Keane said. “What we’ve been doing for 10-11 months that I’ve seen and talking to them is trying to strengthen these relationships.”
But the assessments of Trump’s first year are not likely to silence the criticism.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, said Trump is likely to alienate allies in the fight against the Islamic State and other terror groups by retweeting videos from a far-right British group allegedly showing Muslims committing acts of violence.
“I think that is what is concerning about things like that tweet and that video, [it] isn’t just that he is standing up against the terrorist threat which is very threat, it is that he is turning off the very allies in the Muslim world that we desperately need to be successful in that fight,” Smith said.
