Readers React: If Trump poses a threat to NATO, why does the NATO secretary-general praise Trump?

To the editor: If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has a “Trump problem,” as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) writes, every organization should have such a problem.

Schiff doesn’t mention that Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of NATO, has praised President Trump. Stoltenberg said Trump is helping “us adapt the alliance, which we need, because we live in a more unpredictable world…. And you have to remember that the increase we now see in defense spending by European and NATO allies comes after years of decline. So before they were cutting billions. Now they’re actually adding billions.”

Stoltenberg credits Trump with obtaining $100 billion more in defense spending for the alliance. That’s not exactly the picture Schiff is painting.

P.J. Gendell, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: Schiff’s article speaks to the vital importance of our historical alliances. His concluding statement that the “U.S, together with our NATO allies, must carry the torch of democracy and human rights at a time when both are increasingly at risk,” should be a rallying cry throughout the country.

However, nothing says it better than the photo published with this article in print, showing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron eyeing each other in disbelief, probably about the man who is coming between them and NATO, oblivious in his lonely pout.

Bridget Tucker, Laguna Hills

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