Trump team working to remove top NATO official

WaPo ^ | 13 Dec 2016 | Josh Rogin

[mandaladon]

The incoming Trump administration is looking to get rid of the No. 2 official at NATO, an American nominated by President Obama whom most Republicans don’t trust. But NATO’s Brussels leadership may not play along, setting up an early confrontation with President Trump.

Two Trump transition sources told me that a representative of the transition team met late last month with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels and delivered a private but deliberate message: The incoming administration would like Stoltenberg to replace Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller. Gottemoeller, who was nominated for the post by Obama this past March, started her job in Brussels only in October and has a multi-year contract. She works for NATO, not the U.S. government.

If NATO leadership agreed to remove Gottemoeller, it would set a new precedent for U.S. government control over American officials in top NATO positions. If the NATO leadership doesn’t agree, the incoming Trump administration could work to marginalize Gottemoeller and render her ineffective. Either way, her role is set to change when the new U.S. president comes into office.

Kurt Volker, who served as U.S. ambassador to NATO at the end of the George W. Bush administration, said that though a U.S. president pushing for a NATO official to be removed is unusual, it’s part and parcel of Donald Trump’s style and a good indicator of how Trump will deal with international organizations as president.

“I’m not surprised. Their style is to push for what they believe their interests to be and not just be passive about it,” he said. “Trump wants a person at NATO that reflects the administration’s views, and that’s a good sign because it shows he actually cares about the organization.”

[mandaladon]

Behind closed doors in 2012, Gottemoeller told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a classified briefing that Russia was violating the INF treaty by developing and testing a new ground-based cruise missile. The Obama administration didn’t tell the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s political body, about the violations until January 2014 and didn’t disclose them publicly until July 2014.~~~~~~~~~~~~Obama was supporting the Russians then...now they're our enemy?

[bigbob]

East end of the swamp

[mandaladon]

Gottemoeller’s allies see the Trump transition team’s quiet move to replace her in NATO as a brazen, brute-force tactic to pressure the alliance to bend to Trump’s will.~~~~~~~~~~~~~Getting worried?

[grobdriver]

Either way, her role is set

Well THERE'S your problem!

[Stosh]

Money talks, other stuff walks - the new administration will be looking for places to economize, and I doubt if many here would mind if our contributions to NATO were cut back a bit, as they’re likely to be in other venues. Especially if the European NATO bureaucracy insists on keeping people around we’re not especially fond of.

[mandaladon]

Obama’s appointees at international organizations around the world should be forewarned: Even if you don’t work for the U.S. government directly, Trump might be looking to find a way to say, “You’re fired.”~~~~~~~~~~~~YES!!!

[mandaladon]

If she is an Obama appointee, then she is anti-American, it is as simple as that, hell yes she has to go...

[Parmy]

Finally, we have someone coming into and will be in office who is not a straw man. But a take charge individual who will run thing in the best interest of the United States.

We have been paying through the nose for NATO. That's going to change.

[Moltke]

What’s a chick doing running NATO? Or is it NASO these days? (North Atlantic Sammich Organisation)

[Lisbon1940]

Have you checked out the defense ministers of the EU “nations?”

[2banana]

America funds 70%+ of NATO.

Trump will have his way.

[pepsi_junkie]

Have you checked out the defense ministers of the EU “nations?”

A bunch of women who never served.

The Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, and German Defense Ministers:

[joshua c]

We are NATO. You’re fired!

[ZULU]

Good. I support Trump. These creatures of Obama need to be removed from all influential slots everywhere.

[dfwgator]

Meanwhile, this is the Russian Defense Minister.

[Moltke]

Yeah, I knew that...explains a lot, doesn’t it.

[ntnychik]

It’s funny how a man referred to (since he challenged Hillary for the presidency) as a reality TV show clown has his finger on the pulse of so many significant issues simultaneously. At this point in the 2008 transition, 0 was unveiling his new logo for the office of the president-elect.