WASHINGTON – Bob Gates has worked in senior national-security positions for the last five presidents, Republican and Democratic. So it’s noteworthy – and to me, encouraging – that he is advising President-elect Donald Trump, too.
Gates, a former defense secretary, CIA director and deputy national security adviser, spoke with me by telephone last week about the advice he’s giving Trump and his team – and the opportunities and pitfalls ahead.
David IgnatiusAt the top of Gates’ to-do list is striking the right balance between improving relations with Russia and appearing too cooperative with a belligerent President Vladimir Putin.
“I think the challenge for any new administration would have been how to thread the needle – between stopping the downward spiral in U.S.-Russian relations, which had real dangers, and pushing back on Putin’s aggressiveness and general thuggery,” Gates explained.
Gates explained that if he had been secretary of defense when Russian jets made “dangerously close passes” over U.S. warships in the Baltic Sea in April, “I’d have recommended that we send a message to Moscow that the next time you do it, I’ll ‘paint’ you [with targeting radar], and I may shoot.”