Fmr. Clinton Official, Biden Staffer Metzl: Trump Should Get ‘Enormous Credit’ for Europe Boosting Defense Spending

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Atlantic Council Senior Fellow, former World Health Organization Adviser, former NSC official during the Clinton administration, and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then-Sen. Joe Biden Jamie Metzl stated that President Donald Trump should get praised for pushing European allies to spend more on defense and that “Our European partners and allies are essential to our own security,” but they have to spend more on defense.

Host Trace Gallagher asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:55] “Very quickly, Trump went to NATO. He got these people to kind of pony up some dough, and he’s getting a lot of praise for it. Should he be getting the praise?”

Metzl answered, “Absolutely. President Trump put a lot of pressure on our European allies, and our European allies need to step up. Europe is at risk, Russia poses a fundamental threat to Europe. The United States has responsibilities in Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East. We can’t do it alone to the extent that we’ve done in the past. Our European partners and allies are essential to our own security, but they’ve got to step up. And now that they have…President Trump deserves enormous credit for putting pressure on them to do so.”

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