President Trump declared a new national security strategy Monday, stressing his campaign’s “America First” message and berating his predecessors for weakening the US military and economy.
“Our leaders engaged in nation-building abroad, while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home. They undercut and shortchanged our men and women in uniform with inadequate resources, unstable funding, and unclear missions,” the president said during a speech at the Reagan Building in Washington, DC.
“They failed to insist that our often very wealthy allies pay their fair share for defense, putting a massive and unfair burden on the US taxpayer and our great US military.”
The president also excoriated past administrations for failing to successfully deal with North Korea.
“They neglected a nuclear menace in North Korea; made a disastrous, weak and incomprehensibly bad deal with Iran; and allowed terrorists such as ISIS to gain control of vast parts of territory,” he said.
Trump pointed fingers at his predecessors for shackling the US energy industry and being soft on illegal immigration.
“They put American energy under lock and key. They imposed punishing regulations and crippling taxes. They surrendered our sovereignty to foreign bureaucrats in faraway and distant capitals,” he said, reading from a Teleprompter.
But since he was sworn in on Jan. 20, his administration has reversed course and made progress dealing with all of these issues, Trump declared.
America is refocusing on its military, shunning multilateral agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and “the very expensive and unfair” Paris climate accord and cracking down on illegal immigration and terrorism, he said.
“We are rebuilding our nation, our confidence, and our standing in the world,” the president said.
A separate document released by the White House on “key challenges” facing the US also took an aggressive line against Russia and China.
“Revisionist powers, such as China and Russia . . . use technology, propaganda and coercion to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values,” the document read.
In his remarks, Trump said a recent planned terror attack in Russia was thwarted by a CIA tip that saved thousands of lives.
“I received a call from President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia thanking our country for the intelligence,” he said.
With Post wires