WASHINGTON: Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as US ambassador to NATO, the bedrock Western alliance that the president-elect has expressed skepticism about for years.
Trump, in a statement, said Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.”
The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is in law enforcement and not in foreign policy. Whitaker had been considered a potential pick for attorney general, a position Trump instead gave to Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist seen as divisive even within his own party.
The NATO post is a particularly sensitive one given Trump’s regard of the alliance’s value and his complaints that numerous members are not meeting their commitments to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense.
Whitaker is a former US attorney in Iowa and served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019 as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close.
He had been chief of staff to Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, before being picked to replace his boss after Sessions was fired amid lingering outrage over his decision to recuse from the Russia investigation. Whitaker held the position for several months, on an acting basis and without Senate confirmation, until William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019.
Whitaker has been a relentless critic of the federal criminal cases against Trump, which appear set to evaporate after Trump’s election win. Whitaker has used regular appearances on Fox News to join other Republicans in decrying what they contend is the politicization of the Justice Department over the past four years.
“Matt Whitaker obviously has strong political views, but he followed the rules when I served with him during his three-month tenure as acting Attorney General,” Rod Rosenstein, who was deputy attorney general during Whitaker’s tenure, wrote in an email Wednesday. “Many critics fail to give him credit for that. Matt didn’t drop cases against political allies, and he didn’t pursue unwarranted investigations of political opponents.”
Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience, making him an unknown to many in US security circles.
Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, said the ambassador’s position was “incredibly important” within the US and NATO security framework, as the direct representative of US presidents in decision-making within the alliance.
“The bottom line is they are looked to have the credibility of the president when they speak,” Breedlove said.
Previous ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience. Trump’s first-term NATO ambassador, former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, did not, although she had been involved in foreign policy issues while in Congress. Breedlove said a security background was not essential to the post, but being seen as having a direct line to the president was.
“They need to be seen as actually representing what the president intends. To have the trust and confidence of the president, that’s what’s most important in that position,” he said.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump alarmed Western allies by warning that the United States, under his leadership, might abandon its NATO treaty commitments and only come to the defense of countries that meet the transatlantic alliance’s defense spending targets.
Trump, as president, eventually endorsed NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, which states that an armed attack against one or more of its members shall be considered an attack against all members. But he often depicted NATO allies as leeches on the US military and openly questioned the value of the military alliance that has defined American foreign policy for decades.
In the years since, he has continued to threaten not to defend NATO members that fail to meet spending goals.
Earlier this year, Trump said that, when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent.”
“‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying at a February rally. “‘No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general at the time, said in response that “any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.”
NATO reported earlier this year that, in 2023, 11 member countries met the benchmark of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense and that that number had increased to 18 in early 2024 — up from just three in 2014. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has spurred additional military spending by some NATO members.
Trump has often tried to take credit for that increase, and bragged that, as a results of his threats, “hundreds of billions of dollars came into NATO,” even though countries do not pay NATO directly.
Whitaker, Trump noted in his announcement, is a former Iowa football player.
Whitaker has faced questions about his past business dealings, including his ties to an invention-promotion company that was accused of misleading consumers.
The Wall Street Journal in 2018 published an email revealing an FBI investigation into the company, World Patent Marketing Inc. The July 10, 2017, email was from an FBI victims’ specialist to someone who, the newspaper said, was an alleged victim of the company. A Justice Department spokeswoman told the newspaper at the time that Whitaker was “not aware of any fraudulent activity.”
Those selected for the NATO job in recent years have included retired Gen. Douglas Lute, the current US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, former acting deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and diplomacy academics who previously served on the National Security Council such as Ivo Daalder and Kurt Volker.