White House aide Sebastian Gorka Sebastian Lukacs GorkaSunday shows preview: Trump, lawmakers weigh in on COVID-19, masks and school reopenings amid virus surge Trump taps Gorka for national security advisory board Sunday shows preview: Coronavirus poses questions about school safety; Trump commutes Roger Stone sentence MORE insisted in an interview that aired Sunday that President Trump's "America first" mantra doesn't mean the U.S. is opposed to working with allies.

"When we say ‘America First,’ we do not mean, we do not mean at all, America alone," Gorka said during an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.

"We think 'America first' insofar as that we will stand by and implement and realize our national interests and the interests of all Americans," the national security aide continued.

ADVERTISEMENT

"However, if there are other nations, like the great nation of Poland or our other colleagues in the EU or the G-20, who wish to share our values, that see themselves as having common interests with ourselves, we will work together with those nations," he said.

Trump put a global spin on his "America first" mantra in a speech in Warsaw, Poland ahead of the Group of 20 summit last week. In Poland, the president argued that "our values will prevail, our people will thrive and our civilization will triumph.”

Trump has cited his "America first" focus in explaining a number of controversial proposals that have received international pushback, including his decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord and his demands for fair trade with other countries.

Despite differences with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over issues such as climate change and immigration, the White House aide insisted that U.S. officials were approaching talks at the G-20 summit over the weekend in Hamburg, Germany, with "goodwill."

"We bring the goodwill to the table whether we are talking to Chancellor Merkel, whether we are talking to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. And the question is, how does the other side react?" Gorka said.

Gorka said that Trump's team has heard that the president's speech in Warsaw was "perhaps the best speech the president has yet given."

"It leveraged the key themes of his administration: an unapologetic acceptance of what we stand for as a nation, and who we stand with shoulder to shoulder as part of Western civilization," he said.