A group of political heavyweights have just released an open letter addressing Republican nominee for president Donald Trump’s recent remarks on NATO and Russia.


  • The group includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former CIA director and defense secretary Leon Panetta, senior officials, and military officers. It also includes several Republicans.
  • The group referred to Trump’s remarks as “disgraceful statements that betray our long-standing values and national interests embraced by presidents of both parties.”
  • The open letter addresses several issues: Trump’s questioning of NATO’s value, his plea for Russia to hack the US Department of State to retrieve Hillary Clinton’s infamous lost emails, and his seeming willingness to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Crimea by Russia.
  • The open letter doesn’t throw any support to Hillary, but it makes a clear anti-Trump statement: “Every president, without exception, has accepted the wisdom of this strategy. That is why we find Trump’s cavalier denigration of NATO so worrying and so objectionable. Strong alliances are essential to U.S. national security. America needs a president who will strengthen our alliances, not denigrate and destroy them.”
  • In an exclusive interview with Globalo, a top Trump advisor tells Trump’s real position on NATO–and it may surprise you!




See the full letter and list of signatories below:

natoThe letter was signed by:

Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State

General John R. Allen, USMC (Ret.)
Former Commander of NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan

Jeremy Bash
Former Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense and CIA

John B. Bellinger III
Former Legal Advisor to the Department of State and Former Legal Advisor to the National Security Council

John Beyrle
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and to Bulgaria

Ian Brzezinski
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy

Nicholas Burns
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to NATO

William J. Burns
Former Deputy Secretary of State and Former Ambassador to Russia

Derek Chollet
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

Lt. General Dan Christman, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former U.S. Representative to the NATO Military Committee and Former Superintendent of the United States Military Academy

General Wesley K. Clark, U.S. Army (Ret.) Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, 1997-2000

Richard Danzig
Secretary of the Navy, 1998-2001

Evelyn Farkas
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia

Lee Feinstein
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland

Michele Flournoy
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2009-2012

Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, USMC (Ret.)
Former Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Military Committee NATO

Philip Gordon
Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and Former White House Coordinator for the Middle East

Marc Grossman
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to Turkey

John Herbst
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and to Uzbekistan

Kathleen Hicks
Former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Christopher Hill
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Iraq and South Korea

Beth Jones
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia

James N. Miller
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2012-2014

Leon E. Panetta
Former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA

Thomas R. Pickering
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to Russia

Steven Pifer
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine

Marcie Ries
Former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and to Albania

Kori Schake
Former Director for Defense Strategy and Requirements National Security Council

Randy Scheunemann
Former Defense Department Consultant

Wendy R. Sherman
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

Julianne Smith
Former Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden

Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.)
Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, 2009-2013

James Steinberg
Former Deputy Secretary of State

Andrew Weiss
Former Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia National Security Council

Damon Wilson
Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs National Security Council

Christine Wormuth
Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, 2014-2016

Kenneth Yalowitz
Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia and to Belarus