Is NATO Broken Or Obsolete? Donald Trump Advisor Explains PEOTUS’s Comments

President-elect Donald Trump has heightened fears of NATO member countries with his comments of late, calling the long-running combined military and diplomacy effort of the United States and Europe “obsolete.” But one of the Republican’s advisors attempted Tuesday to clarify Trump’s reasoning, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Soon to be a Trump White House staffer and adviser, hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, told a crowd assembled at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Trump is trying to look further down the road when it comes to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"NATO is working but there are things about it that need to change and there are parts of it that are, in the words of Trump, 'obsolete,'" Scaramucci said. "We have to think about changing the (NATO) treaty to front face the 21st and 22nd centuries."

NATO was founded in 1949 and is currently made up of 28 countries, many of whom – like Croatia, Albania and Latvia – have joined over the last decade for security. The security organization has long stood as a union between the U.S. and Western European powers full in the face of Russia.

One of those European powers, Germany, has been particularly unnerved by Trump’s combined interview published on Sunday with the Times of London and German outlet Bild, during which he suggested major changes to U.S. foreign policy once he takes power. Trump also called out German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying her handling of the country’s refugee crisis was “catastrophic,” CNN reported.

"I said a long time ago that NATO had problems," Trump said in the interview. "Number one it was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago.

Trump also added: "Number two the countries weren't paying what they're supposed to be paying."

Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir responded at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers Monday by saying he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said he “is concerned that President-elect Trump regards NATO as obsolete.”