Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said Monday that “US credibility is at stake” in the wake of comments from former President Donald Trump that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO partners that don’t meet spending guidelines on defense.
Asked by “NBC Nightly News” about Trump’s admission that he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of NATO if reelected, Brown said that the alliance is strong and has been around for 75 years.
“I think we have a responsibility to uphold those alliances,” Brown told NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview airing Monday evening. “US credibility is at stake with each of our alliances, and US leadership is still needed, wanted, and watched.”
What exactly do you think “credibility” is? It doesn’t mean everyone in that country agrees with the leader in power - that literally doesn’t matter.
Trumps erratic behaviour has torched a lot of US credibility in international relations, because it shows that whatever the US might say and do during a sane administration, they’re never more than 4 years away from potentially torching everything just for shits and giggles and descending into conducting international relations based on toddler tantrums. Trump’s torching of the Iran deal burned all the moderates in that country and now the the US has no credibility to negotiate another one (even if that were possible in the current situation) because all parties know the next guy might just reverse it out if spite. This is true even if you think the Iran deal was bad.