Or if China takes aggressive action in the South China Sea, threatening our Asian allies as well as our own freedom of navigation, will our Western allies<br />risk the economic repercussions of confronting China to stand beside an “America First” president who refuses to affirm our NATO commitments?<br />At NATO, the president’s reckless refusal to reaffirm our commitment to the defense of our allies under Article<br />5, while hectoring them publicly about their military spending, made our allies conclude they must go it alone.<br />Congress must insist, on a bipartisan basis, that the United States continue to play its traditional<br />leadership role, by fully funding both defense and our foreign assistance programs.<br />With shocking speed, he has wreaked havoc: hobbling our core alliances, jettisoning American values<br />and abdicating United States leadership of the world.<br />And now the president has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, putting us at odds with virtually the entire world.<br />The president’s budget would slash funding for the United States Agency for International Development<br />and the State Department by nearly 30 percent, rendering our embassies vulnerable to attack and shuttering vital programs that advance our interests.<br />This work began promptly on Jan. 23, when the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,<br />leaving key allies empty-handed, fearful of the strategic benefit that will inevitably accrue to China.<br />Most Americans surely still see the benefits of the United States being the strongest, most trusted and respected country in the world.
