The deputy secretary of state posted and then quickly deleted a social media attack against President Donald Trump’s ambassador to NATO.
Ambassador Matt Whitaker, who is a MAGA hardliner, had posted a routine diplomatic post on the social media platform X, writing, “What happens in the Indo-Pacific matters for transatlantic security,” he wrote.
“That’s why NATO works with partners globally. In Brussels I’ve met with our partners from Japan, South Korea, Australia New Zealand over recent weeks,” Whitaker continued, introducing a thread about his meetings with ambassadors from those countries.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, however, took issue with the seemingly innocuous posts.
“He obviously didn’t get the memo of our Deputies Committee meeting on this very issue,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s right-hand aide wrote in a reply, according to The New York Times. “NATO is still a solution in search of a problem.”
What happens in the Indo-Pacific matters for transatlantic security. That’s why NATO works with partners globally.In Brussels, I’ve met with our partner ambassadors from 🇯🇵🇰🇷🇦🇺🇳🇿over recent weeks. Here’s a thread. 👇
— U.S. Ambassador to NATO (@USAmbNATO) June 10, 2025
Landau then quickly deleted the post. It wasn’t clear if he had accidentally insulted one of Trump’s ambassadors in public or if he intentionally leveled the attack and then regretted it, the Times reported.
The State Department did not respond to the Times’ request for comment. The Daily Beast has also reached out.
Whitaker worked at the Department of Justice during Trump’s first term and gained a reputation for personal loyalty to the president, despite the department traditionally enjoying a degree of independence from the White House.
He was a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election and temporarily led the DOJ as acting attorney general.
Before being tapped as ambassador to NATO, he accused European countries of “taking advantage” of the U.S. and spending their money on “socialized medicine and other experiments.”
The U.S. has since put NATO in several awkward positions, with Trump subjecting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to rants about taking over Canada and Greenland.
Canada and Denmark, which has sovereignty over Greenland, are both founding members of NATO, an alliance built on the principle of collective defense, with an attack on one member being treated as an attack on all.
Rutte has been dubbed the alliance’s “Trump whisperer” for his ability to tactfully handle Trump and his advisers.
Landau previously served as Trump’s ambassador to Mexico.
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