House Speaker Paul Ryan’s newly unveiled defense plan, while intending to target President Barack Obama, also takes a swipe at presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — especially over NATO.
The GOP’s national security approach, entitled “A Better Way,” attempts to qualify at least several proposals forwarded by Trump, namely the need for a wall to separate the United States from Mexico.
“We need more than just fencing” to bring security back to the border area, according to the GOP’s policy document. House Republicans want more agents at the border and a better method for vetting people streaming into the U.S. They also want a system to track illegals.
The Thursday document also reaffirms the importance of NATO by stating the organization should be modernized and solidified. U.S. forces should retain a strong showing in Europe and provide training and other assistance to Eastern European member countries. Trump, on the other hand, stated in a March interview on ABC that NATO is both obsolete and expensive.
“NATO was done at a time you had the Soviet Union, which was obviously larger — much larger than Russia is today. I’m not saying Russia is not a threat,” Trump said. “But we have other threats. We have the threat of terrorism.”
Around the same time, Trump met with The Washington Post’s editorial board and said the burden of NATO obligations has fallen disproportionately on the United States, and that other countries part of the organization must step up and carry their fair share. Specifically, Trump asked why Germany is not taking the lead on issues in Ukraine.
“Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of the Ukraine not dealing with — why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially the third world war, okay, with Russia? Why are we always the ones that are doing it?” Trump asked.
A third attempt to cut back on Trump’s aggressiveness shows up in the document’s approach to Japan and South Korea, two countries Trump said the U.S. should arm with nuclear weapons. The document pushes to “shore up our defense arrangements” and totally sidesteps the question of bombs.
Perhaps to soften the blow, Ryan also complimented Trump’s demeanor and suggested the presumptive nominee is far more reasonable behind closed doors than his public presence might.
“I think his stage presence is something different than, say, what I would do,” Ryan said. “But in my personal interactions, I find him to have a very even-handed temperament.”
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