(TJV NEWS) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered rare praise for President Donald Trump’s foreign policy this week, telling the Raging Moderates podcast that she is “encouraged” by his success in pushing NATO allies to increase defense spending and in securing European commitments to support Ukraine.

Hillary Clinton praises Trump: “I actually was encouraged by the events of the last several months.”

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— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) August 16, 2025

“I actually was encouraged by the events of the last several months,” Clinton said Friday. “The NATO commitment by individual member states to increase their defense spending is very welcome. It’s something that prior administrations have certainly sought, and I think it’s great that we are seeing these commitments that now have to be followed through on.”

Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, noted that European nations are not only stepping up their backing for Ukraine but also buying American-made weapons to aid Kyiv. She said this marks a shift from the “dismissiveness” of Trump’s first term toward what she described as a “working relationship” that strengthens European, trans-Atlantic, and Ukrainian security.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet today in Alaska and even Hillary Clinton sees a path toward a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump (but it’s going to take a lot).

Here’s how: https://t.co/SPuj87qz48 pic.twitter.com/4GJPBmSnhs

— Jessica Tarlov (@JessicaTarlov) August 15, 2025

In a surprising remark, the former First Lady added that if Trump were able to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine without requiring Kyiv to surrender territory, she would support his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Still, Clinton was sharply critical of Trump’s domestic agenda, pointing to his federal takeover of Washington, D.C., the surge in immigration raids, and other policies she opposes.

The podcast interview did not touch on the Justice Department’s probe into Obama-era intelligence officials accused of spreading false claims of Trump-Russia collusion in 2016, nor on renewed scrutiny of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, in which her husband Bill Clinton has been repeatedly named in flight logs and visitor reports.