Trump surrogate and potential representative of the United States Anthony Scaramucci on Friday compared the President leaving Article 5 out of his recent speech to NATO members to former President Ronald Reagan urging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
The perplexing comparison came during an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, who asked Scaramucci why, if Trump believed that America was part of a global community, the President left out a sentence supporting Article 5 from his speech at NATO headquarters on May 25.
Article 5 is the treaty organization’s crucial “collective defense” clause, which requires member nations defend each other if attacked. Trump’s omission of any mention of the clause rattled many NATO members.
“Why would the President have taken Article 5 out of his NATO speech, and surprised those around him, members of his NSA team, who thought that was in there?” Ruhle asked.
Scaramucci, who served on Trump’s presidential transition team’s executive committee, called the omission a “Reaganesque sort of thing.”
“It’s the same reason why Ronald Reagan left in ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall,’” he said. “I think the President’s trying to send a message to our fellow allies that you’ve been under, as it relates to your national defense expenditures, particularly Germany is at, like, 1.2 percent, when they signed a contract that they would be at 2 [percent].”
Aside from comparing America’s strongest allies — who have fought the war on terrorism for more than 15 years — to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Scaramucci failed to mention that member nations have until 2024 to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense under the agreement he referenced.
Scaramucci added, referring to Trump’s decision not to mention Article 5: “I think the President’s trying to send people a message that he wants people to be accountable to the treaty and so by — taking that out is a symbolic message. And it’s one of the geniuses of the President as it relates to negotiating. He wants these people to be held accountable.”
“It was genius that he didn’t mention article 5?” Ruhle asked.
“It is,” Scaramucci said. “And Stephanie, that’s good for the American taxpayer as well. I think the American taxpayer is shouldering a tremendous burden as it relates to global security. And I think all the President’s asking for is that our partners in this thing ante up what they agreed to. And so I do think that’s genius.”
At the top of the interview, Scaramucci acknowledged that he stood to financially benefit from being appointed a representative of the United States, after selling his asset management business, SkyBridge Capital, in January.
On Thursday, multiple outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported Scaramucci was under consideration to become the next American ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Still, the hedge fund manager has been under reported consideration for a number of administration posts in recent months, all with nothing to show for it. He denied to confirm discussion of the most recent ambassadorship Friday.
