Former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen said President Trump’s foreign policy was dismantling pillars of stability that helped keep the world safe.
“The president has taking a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security we have erected over the past 60, 70 years,” Cohen told CNN. “He’s systematically demolishing them, starting off with [the Trans-Pacific Partnership] TPP, where he undermined 10 other nations in signing an economic agreement that would have, in fact, been in our overall interest, starting there and just systematically going after criticizing publicly our NATO allies. And they should have been criticized, but not in the way you demean them.”
{mosads}“Now we have a much more chaotic, disorganized, disorderly world, and now our role in that world is going to be coming back to continental United States thinking that we’re safe in some kind of continental cocoon. I think it’s a big mistake. I think we’re in more danger now than we’ve been before,” he added.
Cohen, citing several foreign policy stances, said Trump is unfit to be president.
“I expressed this view to begin with. I must say it publicly: I did not support him for the president. I felt that by training and background and temperament, that he was not fit for the job, and everything I’ve seen to date — not everything, I give him credit when he’s been right and I give him credit for taking on China on multiple issues. But when it comes to the national security and the way he’s dealing with our allies and the way he is betraying our interests, then I say no,” he said.
Trump has feuded with historical U.S. allies, including the European Union and NATO, complaining that they don’t spend enough on shared defense and repeatedly refusing to affirm America’s commitment to defend NATO allies. Outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis has been a staunch NATO supporter and alluded to his disagreement with Trump in his resignation letter.
“One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies,” Mattis wrote.