The same day that White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the “Trump doctrine” means not being the “world’s policemen,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the U.S. will protect “innocents anywhere in the world.”
The comments from Tillerson came during a ceremony Monday at a memorial for victims of the Nazi regime in Italy. “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” the secretary of state said. “This place will serve as an inspiration to us all.”
Tillerson made the remark as the Trump administration is trying to define its foreign policy stance. The U.S. attacked a Syrian airfield Thursday where planes allegedly took off to deliver a chemical weapons attack that left more than 80 dead.
Spicer said a press briefing Monday, “The Trump doctrine is something that he articulated throughout the campaign, which is that America’s first. We are going to make sure that our national interests our protected, that we do what we can to make sure our interests both economically and national security are at the forefront.”
“We aren’t going to just become the world’s policemen running around the world,” Spicer added. “We have to have a clear and defined interest wherever we act, and it’s our national security first and foremost that has to deal with how we act.”
He defended the strike on Syria by saying that it was in the U.S. national interest as “when you see mass weapons of destruction being used, it should be a concern to every nation, especially our own people. The proliferation of those weapons pose a grave threat to our national security.”
Spicer went on to say “the world saw last week that the president is going to act decisively when it comes to things like that. When you gas a baby, you will see a response from this president.”