Jon Decker, WOR White House correspondent Interview

Jon Decker talks to Mendte in the Morning about what Donald Trump was able to get done at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what an surprise. This is John Decker W L. R.
White House in Washington. Correspondent was in the Hague for
the NATO summit covering the President. He's on his way
back but from Heathrow Airport he called in and said
he can talk to us about what happens. So John,
first of all, thank you so very much for that
a court Larry, and please tell us what happened.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, I think it was a very successful summit for
President Trump because for years, for ten years, he's been
pushing for all of the NATO members to, in his words,
pay their fair share. And that's exactly what he got
in terms of an agreement at the end of the summit,
and agreement that each and every one of the thirty

(00:43):
two members of NATO will increase their defense spending within
the next ten years. Spain is the outlier. They are
not going to meet the threshold of spending five percent
of their GDP on defense, but the President said he's
going to put pressure on them to increase that fence
spending over the course of his second term.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
There are reports that he was treated a little differently
than he has been in the past. There was a
deference to the President. As a matter of fact, I
heard one of the questions and you were probably at
that news conference where somebody mentioned that the head of
NATO called him daddy at one point and they laughed
about that. Was there a new kind of deference and

(01:26):
respect for President Trump? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I think so absolutely. I mean, the Secretary General of NATO,
Mark Ruda, really treated the President with tremendous respect. They've
known each other for a decade, but you could see
that they get along very well. Much different type of
vibe as it relates to the way that Mark Ruda

(01:49):
treated President Trump versus the way that he treated Joe Biden.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Is the difference now because of what happened in Iran.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
No, I think it goes beyond that. I think they
just recognize that this is a president that you know,
very confident, you know, that is confident in his skills
and what he can bring forward in terms of the
leader of NATO. I think that has a lot to
do with it. It didn't hurt, you know, in terms
of what happened over the weekend with the strike on

(02:22):
those three nuclear sites in Iran.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, in the middle of all this, during the NATO summit,
of course, we had the report out by the New
York Times and CNN saying that the strike on Iran
wasn't as successful as it should have been. And it's
been a huge controversy since then because Israel's come out,
the UNS come out and said no, no, it was
extremely stressful. So what was the reaction there.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, you saw the President, he got a few questions
on that. He wasn't pleased with the nature of those questions,
as you just mentioned. And US intelligence points out that
it was successful, Israeli intelligence points out that it was successful.
And I think there's no doubt about it that Iran
does not pose the type of threat that it did

(03:10):
two weeks ago, not only Israel but to the entire region.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
How is the Hague never been I've been there before.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I've been there before. Yeah, it's a it's a lot different,
you know, as a town than Amsterdam. For instance. Amsterdam's
a fun place and we had great weather when we
were in Amsterdam. For just today, the Haig's more buttoned
up and of course so much security associated with the summit.
As you can probably imagine.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Larry, Wow, one day I want to grow up and
be John Decker. John Decker W R. White House corresponded
in Washington. Car responded, John, thanks so much for making
time for us, really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh, of course, Larry anytime. So happy to be on
your show. Bye bye, have a good trip.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Bye bye.