MILWAUKEE -- House Speaker Paul Ryan vigorously defended the role of NATO and the importance of the United States leading the creation of free-trade agreements on Tuesday, breaking from positions taken by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Ryan, speaking at a luncheon in Wisconsin, called NATO an "indispensable ally" that he wanted to bolster to help fight terrorism. Trump caused alarm in the White House, overseas and among fellow Republicans last week when he suggested the United States might abandon its NATO military commitments if he were elected president.

Ryan doesn't see it that way, saying there's no question "in my mind" that NATO has a role to play in fighting terrorism.

"NATO is as important now as I would say it's been in my lifetime," he said at the event organized by the political website Wispolitics.com. Ryan said he wanted not to weaken NATO, but instead bolster its eastern front as a way to fight terrorism and defend American allies.

Ryan has been tepid in his support of Trump, not publicly endorsing him until June after disagreeing with him on comments he made questioning a judge's ability to be fair because of his Mexican heritage and opposing his plan to ban Muslims from entering the country. But Ryan has also argued that Trump is a better choice than Democrat Hillary Clinton because the House Republican agenda has a better chance of passing with him as president.

"It's much, much easier and better for us to work with a Trump-Pence administration than a Clinton administration," Ryan said Tuesday.

In another break from Trump, Ryan spoke of the need for the U.S. to be a leader in crafting free-trade agreements. Trump has made his opposition to trade agreements the centerpiece of his economic argument. Trump wants to revoke the North American Free Trade Agreement and do away with the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration.

But Ryan said free-trade deals are needed for the health of the U.S. economy, as well as a tool to counter terrorism by forming relations with foreign countries, breaking down barriers and getting people to work together.

"He does say he's for good trade agreements," Ryan said of Trump. "I'm for good trade agreements as well. We agree on that. We don't want bad trade agreements, we want good trade agreements."

Ryan said he has withheld his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal because he said the Obama administration "screwed up in negotiating it." Ryan said he's talked with Obama and trade representatives about the issues he and other Republican opponents want to see addressed, but is not optimistic that a new version can win congressional approval.

"I don't see the votes there for it," Ryan said.

Ryan's appearance at the luncheon came as Democrats were preparing to start the second day of their national convention in Philadelphia. Ryan was chairman of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

Ryan said he hoped the presidential election would be a battle over ideas, but he feared that it would not.

"What I worry about is a personality contest of Hillary fighting Donald, and it's a big personality contest and we don't actually litigate the issues," Ryan said.

One issue that Trump circulated Tuesday was that Democrats, during the previous night's convention speeches, were not addressing national-security concerns.

During a brief speech at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in North Carolina, Trump attacked his opponents for ignoring the subject and specifically avoiding any mentions of the Islamic State extremist group.

"We need to change our foreign policy to focus on defeating and destroying ISIS, a word you didn't hear last night at the Democratic convention," he said, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State. "You didn't hear it. They don't want to talk about it."

Separately, a Kenyan half brother of Obama weighed in on the U.S. presidential election, saying Tuesday that he supports Trump and not Clinton, the candidate his brother has endorsed.

Malik Obama said he thinks Trump has a lot of energy and is very straightforward.

"Clinton is not honest because she says that she did not reveal any classified information, and she did. And I don't see that kind of person being the president of the United States," he said.

Also, "I do not support same-sex marriage," he said. "I am Muslim, it's something God would not approve. The Republican Party doesn't stand for that."

Malik Obama also expressed disappointment that his half brother hasn't done more to support his Kenyan family and the country. The president's father was Kenyan.

"I am upset and disillusioned. When he became president there was a lot of excitement and there was a lot of hope that he would do many things for us and the country," he said. "I don't think he has accomplished that."

Trump has tweeted his surprise at Malik Obama's stance: "Was probably treated badly by president -- like everybody else!"

Malik Obama, 58, stirred up controversy in 2010 when he took a teenager as his third wife. He ran for governor in his home county of Siaya in 2013 and lost. He was unhappy that his half brother did not endorse him.

The father of President Obama and Malik Obama died in a car crash in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter. All his children except Malik and the youngest, George Obama, live in the United Kingdom or the U.S.

Information for this article was contributed by Tom Odula of The Associated Press and by Philip Bump of The Washington Post.

A Section on 07/27/2016