Mr Whitaker is considered a close ally of the president-elect, having previously defended his new boss against the federal criminal cases he is awaiting sentencing for.
He served as acting attorney general for three months during Mr Trump’s first term in the White House, and has since been involved with the America First Policy Institute, a think-tank closely aligned with the president-elect.
While he has rarely spoken on the topic of Nato, Mr Whitaker’s rhetoric has not been as extreme as Mr Trump’s, which could come as a relief for the alliance’s European members.
In 2019, Mr Whitaker told an episode of Fox News’ Fox & Friends that he believed the US would always have to spend more than its “fair share” on defence to protect democracy and freedom around the world.
‘Make sure freedom is defended’
“We are the world’s super power, and only super power, obviously we’re being challenged by countries like China and Russia… so I think we’re always going to have to spend more than our fair share to make sure democracy and freedom is defended worldwide,” he said.
“But, at the same time that doesn’t mean the people we’ve allied with should get to ride on our coattails.”
Mr Whitaker accused countries of “taking advantage of the United States by not paying their 2 per cent”.
He added that the US had shouldered the burden of defending the “European Union”, while the bloc supported “socialised medicine and other experiments”.
Since his first term in office, Mr Trump has been a fierce critic of Nato member states not meeting a commitment to spend at least 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.
On the campaign trail earlier this year, Mr Trump suggested he would “encourage” Russia to attack allies not hitting the 2 per cent target.