A top Trump official says global power alliances are shifting, observing that nations closest to Russia are now increasingly aligned with President Donald Trump’s interests.
Fox News host Martha MacCallum told Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum that she had spoken with President Trump earlier Friday, “and he basically said that Japan is a better ally to the United States than NATO, which, when you look at the big picture in history, is a pretty stunning statement.”
She also asked the secretary, “do you think that our orientation, in terms of our alliances, is changing?”
“Well, clearly, it is,” Burgum replied.
“What we might consider our traditional allies from Europe have been less than reliable,” he said, “and from the time that we’ve spent working with those folks in Eastern Europe, the closer they are to Russia, the more aligned they are with President Trump, and the more … aligned they are on energy policy.”
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Offering Japan as an example, Burgum said that nation “is 120 million people living in the size of an area of North Dakota, and they’ve got complete dependence on foreign energy. They want to buy energy from the United States.”
He explained that it takes eight days by ship from Anchorage to Tokyo, as opposed to 30 days from the Middle East.
“People are desperate to have the stronger relationship with the United States right now on energy,” he claimed.
President Trump’s policies are “absolutely working to build alliances around the world,” Burgum said.
MacCallum noted that “the alliance seems to be the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Japan have a good relationship with us as well right now, and a lot of repair needed in Europe.”
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Image via Reuters