NATO chief praises Trump for making Europe ‘pay in a BIG way’ on defense ahead of historic summit

You mean by threatening to abandon NATO & weakening partnerships, and giving-in to Putin and his war crimes? Yeah, “kudos to Dear Leader” for turning decades of building a powerful force of allies into holding them hostage.

 

Promises made, promises kept. Winning.

 

Sounds great in theory but then where are the corresponding cuts to our own military budget?

 

"Look, I got a BIG WIN!" Donald posted on Truth Social.

(His supporters enthusiastically cheered his very, extremely, totally ..... BIG WIN.)

 

The majority of Europe came to the collective realisation that US military allyship can no longer be relied upon as staunchly as it has in the past.
If he engineered that on purpose, full kudos.

Me? I think there's a strong case that it's the instability and unpredictability, in spite of the very real threat Russia still presents to mainland Europe, has actually been a bigger driver. Everyone wants a big enough stick to defend themslves.

If I can credit him with something, I think he's helped the UK come back closer to Europe post-Brexit, which is something even our own politicians couldn't do. Until last year, as long as I'd lived, I'd have been certain we'd have approached you guys first. All change!

 

Has there been any expression of appreciation by anyone in Europe for the fact that American people and businesses have substantially underwritten/provided Europe’s security for the last 80 years?

 

So tell us oh wise one, how do you induce a bunch of "leaders" actually to pay their way when they appear very comfortable having someone else foot the bill?...oh wait, it's the standard hand out free shit until they tire of someone else carrying the load? No thanks but feel free too.

 

The Russia that can't handle Ukraine? The Russia people are afraid of? The big bad Russian bear with dentures? The Armed Forces of the UK struggling to meet recruitment quotas is somehow our issue? Europe needs to step off its moral high horse and take care of Europe with the US as a backup plan. Britain will never be part of the European collective. They're too British.

 

We didn't provide the backbone for NATO out of the goodness of our hearts all those years. We did it because it was in our national security interests.

 

Who was the guy that called Trump, "Daddy"? Some reporter asked Trump about this and if he thought of the NATO nations as his children. I think the Dems should def call him Daddy LOL

 

Meh. I'd say Putin had a greater effect than anything Trump or JD said. Most had already jacked up spending due to that, but if we can get more, all the better. And better for them too. More leverage in the future, especially if they shift that spending to domestic/European producers and away from US defense contractors. I mean, it's pretty clear we can't be counted on anymore.

 

Well, yeah. Also, little things like mandates that the head of NATO ALWAYS be American and if Article 5 is triggered, US Military gets complete control of all forces.

Yeah, let's just throw that away because Europe is too. . . . "woke".

It's a level of stupidity one would have a hard time making up.

But, apparently, the country that produced 15 of the 9-11 hijackers are the good guys and Europe "bad". Only in MAGA Land.

 

I had no idea NATO had 30 members. Also, I think this is a more complicated issue than Trump is making it out to be. Shocker.

 

It is worth noting one of the contributing factors to the fall of the Roman Empire was lack of military funding. If you commit to defending vast amounts of territory around the globe, then you need A LOT of money to field a military to defend that. One of the fundamental differences between the US and the Roman Empire, though, is the Roman Empire collected taxes from conquered territories to pay for their military. The US, unlike Rome, does not collect taxes from many of the constituents who have benefited from the protection of the US military globally. We actually send them foreign aid rather than them paying us.

We should not be cutting the military budget because we need to be all in to win a potential road game in Asia Pacific. China is a communist state that has no regard whatsoever for truth. They most likely lie to cover up how much they spend on their military. What they actually spend is much more than what they report, and it is close to what the US is currently spending on the military.

The ideal scenario involves Europe being self sufficient on the war front with Russia and Saudi Arabia and Israel being self sufficient in defending themselves in the Middle East against Iran. This would allow the US military to focus their attention on the most pressing threat in the Pacific war theater.

The alliance between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea is being strategically used by China to get the US to commit military assets and personnel to other parts of the world away from the Pacific war theater. These other conflicts cause us to use valuable military inventory that could be needed in a war in Asia Pacific. It is much easier to defeat an enemy who is fighting multiple wars in three distant regions of the globe. Iran was for the most part defeated and Israel did 95% of the work involved with defeating them. So that is a big victory for the US over China since we committed a minimal amount of resources to eliminate one of the potential flash points of conflict China was hoping we would get drawn into outside the Pacific. It is common sense that war is much easier to win when you only have to fight one war. And this is why Europe and Israel holding their own ground with minimal US involvement is in the best interest of the US military.

 

I appreciate the thoughtful response, and you make valid points, but I still think the fact remains that we've come to live with a bloated, ever increasing military budget because we have effectively been defending the world, and more specifically, picking up the slack for other NATO countries who weren't paying their fair share. So if they are now paying their fair share, I'd expect that we could decrease, or at least keep flat, our defense budget.

 

C’mon, do better. European nations have been taking advantage of the US for years and it is about time these countries started paying their fair share. Kudos to Trump for getting this done.

 

Of course there has.
Hugely.

 

When you see the trade deal that the EU gets, compared to your deal, you will be glad Brexit did in fact happen.