Former vice president Al Gore has likened Donald Trump’s attempt to “take a wrecking ball” to NATO with his remarks over Greenland to the demolition of the White House’s East Wing, calling the president’s actions “insane.”
“NATO has been a tremendous foreign policy achievement for the United States as our effort to build up other alliances, to establish the rule of law, a rules based order, all of that has benefited the United States enormously,” Gore said, speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum Wednesday.
“And to try to take a wrecking ball to these alliances, the way he took a wrecking ball to the East Wing is literally insane.”
Earlier at the global summit in Davos, Trump delivered an aggressive speech to attendees in which he said he would not seek to annex Greenland with military force but called for “immediate negotiations” aimed at a deal for the U.S. to acquire the Arctic territory, which both Danish and Greenlandic authorities have said is not for sale.
He also said the U.S. would be “unstoppable” in any attempt to seize the island but disclaimed any interest in doing so. The president has also previously claimed that a U.S. seizure of Greenland would actually make NATO more secure.
Asked if he believed Trump about the annexation making the alliance more secure, Gore was blunt. “No, of course not. It’s ridiculous.”
The former vice president, who served under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, said that the president’s speech was a “classic Trump performance.”
“I would hate to be the fact checker that had to go through that speech,” he said. “But I think there was one element of the speech that I would interpret as a positive.
“I think perhaps because of the stock market’s reaction yesterday, he appeared to back down from his previous threat to use military force to acquire Greenland. And if I’m interpreting that correctly, I think that’s a good thing.”
Gore has already been vocal in his opposition for the Trump administration at Davos, having previously been unveiled as one of the hecklers that disrupted an event during which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was speaking Tuesday.
Lutnick was speaking at an invite-only VIP dinner event hosted by billionaire BlackRock boss Larry Fink, after which he was loudly booed. Gore later said his actions had been in response to Lutnick’s attack on Europe in his remarks.
“I sat and listened to his remarks,” Gore told Mediate in a statement Wednesday. “I didn’t interrupt him in any way. It’s no secret that I think this administration’s energy policy is insane. And at the end of his speech I reacted with how I felt, and so did several others.”
