# Trump's NATO reversal

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Trump's NATO reversal," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trumps-nato-reversal/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's explanation for Donald Trump's turn from hostility to enthusiasm for NATO — that he genuinely expected Vladimir Putin to do as he was told, and embraced the alliance out of anger when Putin would not settle the war in Ukraine, because the alternative was standing alone.*

- **The change:** From hostility to NATO to embracing it
- **Kiriakou''s general view of Trump:** 'Always flip-flopping like a fish on a dock'
- **The premise he says Trump held:** That Vladimir Putin would do what he told him to do
- **The trigger:** Putin''s refusal to settle Ukraine at the negotiating table
- **The reason it forced his hand:** 'Otherwise, he''s going to be out there all alone'
- **The underlying point:** 'Diplomacy takes work'

**Trump's NATO reversal** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of why [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump), having spent years attacking the North Atlantic alliance, came to embrace it in 2025.

His general observation about Trump's positions comes first: he is *"always flip-flopping like a fish on a dock."*[1]

The specific explanation is about a failed assumption. Kiriakou believes Trump *"really believed that Vladimir Putin would do what he told him to do"*, and that he is *"just so angry that Putin won't just go to the negotiating table and settle this thing with Ukraine."* Having lost the bilateral route, Trump *"now has got to embrace NATO. He's got to. Otherwise, he's going to be out there all alone."*[1]

The reversal, on this reading, is not a change of view about the alliance's merits but a fallback position produced by the failure of a personal approach — which returns Kiriakou to the point he had been making all afternoon about the Gaza talks: *"diplomacy takes work."*[2]

## See also

- [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- [Vladimir Putin](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vladimir-putin)
- [Kiriakou's Ukraine settlement prediction](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ukraine-settlement-prediction)
- [Drunken border guards](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/drunken-border-guards)
- [Russia and NATO membership](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/russia-nato-membership)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 1:16:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=4614s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 1:17:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=4645s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trumps-nato-reversal/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt