Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as envoy for special missions, warned that NATO leaders would face backlash from the United States if they pushed to extend alliance membership to Ukraine without first boosting their own support for the embattled eastern European nation.
Amid the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, NATO leaders have discussed steps to extend the alliance membership to Ukraine, but the alliance is still working out details of the ascension plan.
Speaking at a Jan. 23 panel discussion on Ukraine on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance is committed to extending membership to Ukraine, but still has to work out the ascension process.
“The question now of course is how this will exactly play out whenever hopefully as soon as possible,” said Rutte, a Dutch national.
Calling into the panel from California, Grenell pushed back on Rutte’s comments.
“I think you’re going to run into a big buzzsaw in America if we have the NATO secretary general talking about adding Ukraine to NATO,” Grenell said.
While Ukraine has sought NATO membership for years, the alliance’s ascension process requires the unanimous support of all current member nations. U.S. opposition alone could halt Ukraine’s membership.
Trump and his allies have raised concerns that the United States has borne the brunt of the cost of arming and sustaining Ukraine throughout the ongoing war and that the other NATO members have lagged behind alliance military spending targets.
“The American people are the ones that are paying for the defense,” Grenell said. “You cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren’t paying their fair share. And that includes the Dutch.”
Responding to Grenell’s remarks, Rutte agreed that there is a problem with alliance members lagging behind their existing spending commitments. Rutte then said the alliance will need to set even higher military spending targets to adjust to growing international threats and boost its arms production capabilities.
Rutte said he’s hopeful to get all alliance members past the 2 percent spending target within the coming months.
Ukraine Negotiations
Beyond criticizing NATO allies for not bearing more of the burden of sustaining Ukraine, Trump has repeatedly indicated he would prefer to negotiate an end to the ongoing war.In his own virtual remarks before the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Trump said, “Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now, hopefully, underway.”
Grenell told the WEF panel that Trump was “handed a terrible mess.”
“There are not a lot of great choices, but President Trump ... has already made clear that he’s going to pressure both sides to end this,” he said.
At times on the campaign trail, Trump said he could negotiate a deal to end the fighting within 24 hours. His team has since softened that timeline for a deal.
“I would say just give President Trump a little time,” Grenell said. “He’s the best negotiator.”
