OPINION: Vladimir Putin’s gotta love Donald Trump’s plan to dump Europe and NATO

Donald Trump shocked America’s allies when he made a late night release of his National Security Strategy (NSS) on December 4. The document contends that the international order the United States established with its allies following World War II has undermined “the character of our nation” and must be replaced by a system focusing on the Western Hemisphere. The concept is to dominate our neighbors to the North and South with what the NSS calls “commercial diplomacy.” That is: “The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment by every U.S. Government financing program.” This is mercantilism in its rawest form.

On the other hand, the NSS suggests that America should distance itself from our European allies who have stood with us and against Russian aggression since Western Europe rose from the ashes of war. Pentagon officials told European diplomats in Washington last week that Trump wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO's conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027. That would be disastrous for America’s national security interests. Our extraordinary control of NATO and cooperation with its partner nations have provided bases to project American power and greatly facilitated our rise as an unrivalled military and economic power.

Trump's NSS essentially dismisses Russia as a threat to the United States, which is a dramatic change from previous versions of the document. The strategy complains that “European officials…hold unrealistic expectations” for an end to Russia's war against Ukraine. If those expectations are unrealistic, it is only because Trump has essentially cut off critical military assistance to Ukraine, while making nice to Vladimir Putin. His NSS gives voice to Putin’s demands for ending “the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.” There is much in the strategy to warm the heart of Trump’s favorite dictator. A fair reading of the document indicates a plan to dump Europe, NATO and Ukraine.

The NSS also answers the question of why the U.S. has positioned such a formidable military force off the shores of Venezuela. Trump’s claim that it was to interdict drugs never rang true. Trump has shown how much he cares about fighting narco-terrorists by pardoning a creep who was convicted in 2024 for trafficking over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez once boasted that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses” and he certainly stuffed a mighty tonnage. Trump falsely claimed the prosecution was unfair, but failed to mention that the investigation began during his first term, or that his sycophantic lawyer, Emil Bove III, had played a major role in the investigation.

Trump’s purported drug war with Venezuela was merely a pretense to insert U.S. military power into southern waters to carry out the Western Hemisphere strategy set out in the NSS. America has no strategic interest in waging hostilities against Venezuela. We do have important strategic interests in placing American military power in close proximity to the dangerous threats posed by our major adversaries, Russia and China. It makes absolutely no sense to adopt a national security strategy that diverts the nation’s attention from the real and present dangers facing our country.

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Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He also publishes at substack.com/@jjcommontater.