Posted on 07/21/2016 5:02:26 AM PDT by Eurotwit
For example, asked about Russia’s threatening activities that have unnerved the small Baltic States that are among the more recent entrants into NATO, Mr. Trump said that if Russia attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.”
Mr. Trump had nothing but praise for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s increasingly authoritarian but democratically elected leader. “I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around,” Mr. Trump said of the coup attempt on Friday night. “Some people say that it was staged, you know that,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Asked if Mr. Erdogan was exploiting the coup attempt to purge his political enemies, Mr. Trump did not call for the Turkish leader to observe the rule of law, or Western standards of justice. “When the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I trust the man's judgement .. the people he'll surround himself with will all be top notch within their areas of expertise .. Bolton, Newt, etc
Let's not panic quite yet, shall we ? !
>The Erdogan comments though...
Almost of all that was editorialized crap to make trump look bad.
For example:
>Asked if Mr. Erdogan was exploiting the coup attempt to purge his political enemies, Mr. Trump did not call for the Turkish leader to observe the rule of law, or Western standards of justice.
— All inserted by the editor.
> “When the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger,” he said.
—Trump actual point which is we’re telling people to do stuff we don’t do ourselves. We won’t impress people when act like hypocrites.
If you’re going the NYT, then you need to read behind the lines to remove the propaganda.
The two percent of GNP defense spending figure is a goal agreed to by NATO members. It is not part of the treaty and is not a binding requirement on NATO members. Article V, on the other hand, is. If any country does not think it can abide by Article V then then should withdraw from NATO.
Less than a week ago Trump was on "60 Minutes" talking about how as president he would get NATO troops involved in fighting ISIS. If he's placing conditions on the treaty obligations that the U.S. will fulfill then how does he expect to get other NATO members to join in when he wants them to?
Yes, consider the source.
The Slimes lies constantly; I will not take their word for what anyone says.
Oh man.
Where is this so-called praise the Hillary propaganda team claims is here? Saying he defended against a coup is not praise, its a factual observation. Saying we have no right to be hypocrites when we have our own dirty laundry to deal with is also a factual observation.
You should know better then to let the New York Times tell you what to think.
I don’t see the big deal. He praised Erdogan for turning the coup around, stated he didn’t think it was staged(maybe because it sounds a little like a conspiracy theory or that’s how the media would portrait it when he says it), offered no caution to Turkey and the likes to follow rule of law(who’s law?), convinced he could persuade Erdogan to put more effort into fighting the Islamic State by meeting with him, said Assad is bad but Islamic State is biggest problem.
Probably doesn’t want to come off sounding like he’d overthrow Erdogan because that’s what the obama/clinton admin does, replace rulers.
That IS a damning graph.
As I said in a post above.
NATO allies need to start paying their fair share.
Perhaps Trump’s comments can put a fire under their feet.
As Norwegian I am surprised as a country bordering Russia and running large budget surpluses do not even meet the 2 percent mark.
It is not the quality of a great ally :/
We're number 20! We're number 20!
This is a nothing burger. Trump has said America 1st & he will deal with NATO accordingly.
Trump didn’t “praise” Erdogan. He merely stated a fact.
Vote Trump 2016
What would our reaction be if Obama said this?
And as far as defending NATO countries is concerned? Why should we defend them if they follow policies that lead to their being attacked? Since some EU countries that are in NATO have leaders who have put into place a suicide pact with the devil which will destroy them, why would we come to their defense.....again.
Trump is dead wrong about this. Erdogan is an islamist who hates US AND Israel. He is for sharia law in his despotic country. We should have supported the coup, if anything. The Baltic republics are some of the most democratic pro-US countries in the world. Even if we aren’t going to war over evil Russia’s attempt to reconquer them, we should shut up about it and leave the Ruskies in doubt. If Donald keeps making these Hillary type slipups in foreign policy, I don’t know who I’ll vote for!
>The two percent of GNP defense spending figure is a goal agreed to by NATO members. It is not part of the treaty and is not a binding requirement on NATO members. Article V, on the other hand, is. If any country does not think it can abide by Article V then then should withdraw from NATO.
Then lets withdraw. If Nato won’t meet it’s fiscal obligations they can enjoy Russian domination. I frankly don’t give 2 rats asses about nations who can’t be bothered to defense themselves.
Being soft on these nations has made them soft. Time to be tough again.
We would realize that it's all perfectly true, and we'd thank him for opening our eyes to how truly bad the United States is. We'd be certain this was exactly the right thing to say to guarantee our present and future Greatness.
Wouldn't we?
Agreed. Subtle, high-level signaling not understood by unsophisticated minds. He even got in the suggestion that Erdogan staged this coup. No other world leader has come out and even hinted that this was a faux coup. Trump’s words came across as wanting to get along with Erdogan while also signaling that the game is going to change and the U.S. will not longer be a patsy. High-level gamesmanship.
👍
And yet at the same time Trump is talking about getting NATO help in U.S. involvement in Syria against ISIS. Can't have both.
And there is the kernel of a foreign policy driven by righting the deficit and economic fixing of something badly broken at home and on the way to economic collapse with out of control illegal immigration. Maybe the NY Times would like to take their little asses to every engagement and fight wars themselves? DT is expressing right now the preeminent necessity to secure America’s interests at home and dismantle ISIS. To the extent he’s not acting like some despot telling other nations how to conduct their affairs that’s actually a refreshing change. He’ll gather a team which will meet the foreign policy challenges.
“Hint: Erdogan is one of them.”
Yes he is.
Bad form here, Trump.
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