Trump's embarrassing speech to NATO has now forced Gen. Mattis' into sounding more like a CNN Trump surrogate than the Secretary of Defense.
"Face The Nation" host John Dickerson asked the Secretary of Defense why the president didn't embrace NATO's Article 5 during his speech.
Trump decided to act like a slumlord treating our NATO allies as "dead beat dads" instead of partners defending each other.
Dickerson said, "The president recently met with NATO leaders. He didn't mention the commitments in NATO, the so-called Article 5 commitment, an attack on one is an attack on all. Why not?"
Mattis replied, "I think when President Trump chooses to go to NATO personally and stand there alongside the other more than two dozen nations in NATO, that was his statement, not words, actions."
Has the bar dropped so low for this president that he need not ever affirm his positions on foreign affairs to U.S. allies abroad because his mere presence is enough?
General Mattis is the one nomination that was most celebrated by Trump when he took office and now Mattis has to be twisted into a pretzel to defend Trump's boorish and uninformed actions overseas.
After Dickerson asked Mattis if he had to convince Trump to support NATO, Mattis tacitly agreed with the CBS host, telling him that the topic was part of his job interview. At that time, he tried to convince Trump of NATO's necessity as a defense for democracies -- at home and abroad.
