WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s first major foreign policy address alarmed American allies, who view the Republican front runner’s repeated invocation of an “America first” agenda as a threat to retreat from the world.

While most governments were careful not to comment publicly on a speech by a US presidential candidate, Germany’s foreign minister veered from that protocol to express concern at Trump’s wording.

Separately, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday, a day after Ted Cruz named Carly Fiorina as his running mate, she said Trump will get “shellacked by Hillary Clinton” if he is the nominee for the Republican Party, but asserted that he could lose the nomination if he doesn’t get the majority.

“Donald Trump just figured it out, but wow, this system has been in place for a very long time,” she said, referring to his claims that he should be named the nominee even if he falls slightly short of the required 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.

“I think what we need in November is a very clear choice,” she said.

Trump’s claim that Clinton was playing “the woman’s card” has drawn intense backlash, from the Democratic front-runner herself as well as tens of thousands of critics on social media.

“If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the ‘woman card,’ then deal me in,” Clinton said.