In what appeared to be a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s policies, Sen. Mitt Romney used his first speech on the Senate floor to offer a defense of international alliances abroad and an appeal to avoid divisive conspiracy theories, Politico reported on Tuesday.
“Alliances are absolutely essential to America’s security, to our future. I can’t state that more plainly,” the Utah Republican declared, appearing to take aim at the president, without mentioning his name, for criticizing NATO and waging trade wars against Mexico and Canada. “Our alliances are invaluable to us and to the cause of freedom. We should strengthen our alliances, not dismiss or begrudge them. We should enhance our trade with allies, not disrupt it, and coordinate all the more closely our security and defense.”
Romney, however, also defended Trump’s policy of using tariffs to pressure China over its theft of intellectual property, saying that Beijing was becoming the biggest geopolitical threat of the United States.
Romney, though, emphasized that in the effort to combat China the United States should be focused on strengthening alliances and coordinating with them more closely, including promoting a "strong" NATO and Europe, which he implied Trump was not doing, according to The Hill.
The senator also stressed that, “each of us must make an effort to shut out the voices of hate and fear, to ignore divisive and alarming conspiracies, and to be more respectful, more empathetic of our fellow Americans,” emphasizing that “when it comes to cooling the rhetoric and encouraging unity, there is no more powerful medium than the bully pulpit of the President of the United States.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.