Posted on 06/05/2025 2:02:05 PM PDT by Cronos
...Trump made his comments while he and Merz spoke to reporters during Merz's White House visit on Thursday.
Merz pointed out that the anniversary of D-Day is on Friday, saying it was when "the Americans ... ended the war in Europe."
"That was not a pleasant day for you," Trump responded
"No, that was not a pleasant—well—" Merz began before Trump interjected.
"This was not a great day," Trump said.
Merz cut in: "In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship."
"That's true," Trump said
Merz went on to say that "we know what we owe you," adding that the U.S. can play a similarly crucial role in bringing an end to Russia's war against Ukraine.
"America is, again, in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war, so let's talk about what we can do jointly," the German chancellor said. "We are ready to do what we can and you know that we gave support to Ukraine and that we are looking for more pressure on Russia ... we should talk about that."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
More Weenies over to suck up to Trump, hoping that by flattering him they can pull the US into yet another WW.
They’re making something out of nothing.
I watched the whole thing.
Trump did “a lot” of talking and at one point he did say that.
But it was meant as in “the German side” and not personally aimed at the Chancellor or at German people. The German chancellor corrected him and stated that they too were actually liberated, and that isn’t a far stretch of an argument seeing how the Nazis came to power with 32% of the vote.
In a parliamentary system with a lot of parties, you can get a situation where someone rises to power with 30 or less percent of the vote. Hitler had about 32% and there were nearly as many people opposing him as supporting him.
It’s just once in office and after he consolidated power, he became the supreme leader with no one able to challenge anything he says or does.
“Trump did “a lot” of talking and at one point he did say that.”
*************
True that. He expounds on literally everything.
Germany and the rest of the EU along with the UK are all going to have another very bad day if they don’t stop pushing for WWIII!
They will have more than their Islamist usurpers to worry about.
They will have massive riots in the streets and more terrorist attacks when they start their military drafting and they will implode.
This meeting was about approval for the Tarus Missile and Russian Sanctions.
It is like a news black out by the press and White House.
Trump might as well just come clean and tell Russia he has no choice to but continue the American war with Russia via Ukraine/NATO.
**Hitler had about 32% and there were nearly as many people opposing him as supporting him.**
As I understand it only 5% of the Krauts were in the Nazi party. Is that true?
Dec. 17th. That will be the 80th anniversary of the Malmady massacre. Should Trump or JD visit?
I think disengaging is more difficult than being able to simply make a good business deal.
Lots of dead people and destruction. Bad blood with outside influences (which you address) that actually want to exacerbate this war.
I still think Trump will end it. But obviously not as quickly as he thought.
IMHO, everyone wants to win and hurt the other side, but they also want to end this at some level. It’s not in the Russians best interest to keep this going even if they are the ones gaining ground, nor is it in Ukraines interest.
This is like a couple fighting that have gone destructive. Both sides are losing in the fight, but each side wants to force their will in the other. Deep down they know they are hurting themselves and the other person, but they just can’t let it go.
In another post I pointed out that maybe something which can help is an incremental disengagement. Where instead of some grand peace deal, we focus on small steps that are achievable which de-escalate and move towards peace. As we take these measures, it’ll inevitably open the door for more and new measures that can be taken. Chip away at it instead of trying to move the mountain all at once.
It surely does not help that the Germans still see things in terms of “who is at fault” and “who is better than the other.”
That’s all nonsense and won’t help in trying to make the sort of compromises necessary to achieve peace.
You need to realize that in the West we have a deep rooted Russian hatred and fear, which has its reasons.
But the Russians today aren’t the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact is gone.
Likewise, our military and NATO never gave up on seeing Russia as the enemy - EVEN AS THEY HELPED US in Afghanistan and post 9-11, even as they shared Intel with us etc.
Our Intel service (I was part of that community) has a strong anti-Russian sentiment that is institutional and not entirely rational.
Many of the folks in key leadership positions all the way until the present day were in junior positions when the Soviets were still around and in their skull they still see the world in a sort of Cold War way.
Germany is not going to be any different than us. Merz will struggle with the same sort of bias you have as with us (NATO, BND, and Bundeswehr).
We have the exact same problem, all the folks that are “qualified and experienced” in the IC, who lead within the organization, are people that had the Soviets and Warsaw Pact as a threat picture in their formative years: https://www.bnd.bund.de/EN/About-BND/leadership/Leadership_node.html;jsessionid=207D225A3789A7304CBE744F7B2A18BD.internet951
You see the problems clearly. Well stated. Everything you chronicalled should be understood by many of the people here at FR, or in the States. Our school system has failed. Obama pushed thru the legal mechanisms by which American’s can be subjected to propoganda directly by our government. Trump is finishing the job with his BBB and the authorizations to combine the Military and Civilian surveillance AI assisted softwares to monitor every citizen (on the planet eventully) in the US in real and historic time to build a picture of our motives and actions based on social media, banking, education, etc., and eventually China will be jealous of the job we have accomplished. Hell, I thought FB at the CIA was bad enough, especially when I was “encouraged to care take the program once I got to an assignment” at State pending the PAO arrival months after me.
The DNC and Deep State never thought they would cede power after 2012; Trump must have been threatened BIGLY in October when he was allowed to continue surviving into the presidency. I do not envy the job he has to destroy the deep state and reform government agencies.
US money is so critical to the EU that they now risk nuclear war over us disengaging from NATO.
The EU is going to individually one country at a time go thru Civil Wars - the Elites have set the stage, and they have stopped providing for the welfare of the historical peoples of their countries.
I would not put it past the Brits to cause a false flag in London to rid themselves of their immigrant problem in the city, and blame the Russians, or even Trump.
Ukraine is such an Evil Project. It has been used to justify spending, stealing pensions in the EU, stealing elections here and abroad, and people in England fearing their loss of century’s of control over colonies and resources, will risk nuclear war with Russia.
I think Trump and Putin have come to the conclusion that only Putin can help Trump with getting out of Ukraine. Trump telling us that Putin is going to retaliate speaks volumes about his pecarious position and the danger of this war coming home to the US if Britian or France launches nukes; Russia won’t do it.
The nuclear terrorist attacks have been a staple of British Intelligence operations since Ukraine started - they went after the Zapparoshia (sp) and Kursk Nuc plants, even false flag bombings around Chernobyl, attacked the Early Warning Radars, and now the aviation part of the triad.
In further news, from NATO Occupied Ukraine....
Mertz has gone full facist. If you ask the question of why Germany supports Ukraine it is 3-4,000 Euro fine or jail. That opposition political party might just end up leaving the EU and looking to align economically with Russia - this might be one incremental step towards resolving what Ukraine has become.
Every nation has a sphere of influence, even those that do not have a large expeditionary military.
The Germans have a sphere of influence in Europe (economic/political), the French have one in South America and Africa primarily. The US sees the entire Pacific rim, South America, Western and central Europe, much of the Middle East, parts of Africa as our sphere of influence...
Russia has their sphere of influence, and we have been $hitting all over this area for years.
***Nations aligned or outright allied with Russia:
Iraq 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq
Libya 2011: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
Syria 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war
Venezuela 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gideon_(2020)
***Russian border states:
NATO expansion 2004: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia
Attempted NATO expansion 2008, Republic of Georgia (blocked by Russia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%E2%80%93NATO_relations
Attempted NATO expansion 2014, Ukraine (blocked by Russia): we all know what happened
Attempted NATO expansion 2021, Ukraine (blocked by Russia): we all know what happened
It is NOT Russia expanding Westward, it is us expanding Eastward. It is NOT Russia that lied about NATO expansion, that was us. It’s not Russia that cheated on the Conventional Forces Europe Treaty, that was us. It’s not Russia that withdrew from the Ballistic Missile Treaty when it suited them, that was us. It was not Russia that didn’t sign to MINSK nor ever intended on following it, that was us.
Assessment: Post Cold War we were the only remaining super power, China is just now entering the stage, and our policy makers learned quickly that we can use military force to achieve political and economic gains. Post Cold War, our military operational tempo INCREASED (even before 9-11), not decreased.
Assessment: Parallel to the increase in the use of force and becoming far more offensive in nature (Serbia, Libya, etc), we began breaking promises or withdrawing from treaties left and right. We are the big-guy, who is going to stop us? We can do this with impunity and any agreement we don’t like, we trash, even if it was a formal treaty.
Assessment: Our true assessment of Russia is not that it’s some empire about to invade Western Europe (that’s our propaganda). Our true assessment is that Russia is not really a conventional near peer and they are unable to challenge us.
Assessment: Russia has no voice in the West. The little voice they did have was severed in the Obama era (payback for the negative coverage). Unlike China that conducts media outreach, outright owns some Western media outlets, spends money on running news stories they basically write, and broadcasts their TV channels into the US, you have little that gets here from Russia. There is no lobbying by Russia, unlike China that hires big names like the Podesta Group. You have little trade and little that gets manufactured in Russia for American businesses (no economic codependency). There is no “push-back” when we decided to offer NATO membership to Ukraine 2021: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
Assessment: After having armed, trained, built up defensive structures, provided intel to Ukraine for 7 years (since 2014) in large scale, we assumed the cost of military intervention by Russia to block Ukrainian NATO accession would be to high. We assumed Russia would acquiescence.
I know you’ve followed Trump since January and his talk about a new world order based on Sphere’s of Influence.
You’ve done a great job showing how this has worked.
Trump dumped Elon Musk and kept Zelinski... let that sink in for a moment. Let’s hope Trump and Mush make up, and Zelinski’s shelf life has actually expried.
You have to love Russia a lot to defend them on every offensive move they make.
Frankly, D-Day wasn’t a pleasant day for anybody involved. But it was necessary.
Approximately 186,475 American soldiers died while fighting in the European Campaign during WWII. Not to mention the money that the US spent on the military equipment and ammunitions.
117,000 in WWI.
You might want to look at a world map and stick pin in every country we have blockaded, bombed, sponsored coups in, invaded, or occupy, post Cold War.
Our military operational tempo INCREASED post Cold War despite the Russian threat going away, think about that.
You might want ask yourself what a NORTH ATLANTIC Treaty Organization is doing in Africa or the Middle East?
You might want to ask yourself how “expeditionary” campaigns and “attacking” others is defensive, may that be by us, or NATO which allegedly is a “defensive organization?”
You might want to ask yourself if it’s Russia that is expanding West, or us that is expanding East, and what promises we made to the Russians when the Cold War ended regards Ballistic Missiles, Conventional Forces in Europe, or NATO East expansion?
This is NOT Russia invading our sphere of influence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug2468hDl6E
Maybe you need to ask yourself this question: why is every country we want to spread democracy in, bring human rights too, or ensure they are sovereign, nations with a high economic value to us? Ukraine (industrial / agricultural power house), Syria (oil), Libya (oil), Iraq (oil), Venezuela (oil)... Do you really believe this is about freedom and democracy, human rights and national sovereignty? LOL
This is about hard cold economics. And the US military post Cold War has become the Roman Legions expanding and holding onto the empire. In fact, the US military will be used by US politicians to grandstand, to use force for no other reason than to sell oneself, no different than in Rome where Cesar became popular when taking Gaul (Lindsey Graham):
https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-mexico-military-drug-kidnapping-1786025
That is NOT in step with what our nation was founded on traditionally (staying out of European affairs - damn near isolationist), it is NOT Constitutional in many aspects (killing US citizens without a trial, federalizing the National Guard...), killing people for money is NOT the Christian and moral thing to do (oil). But sure, it’s all about human rights, sovereignty and democracy, do you feel good about yourself? That’s all that matters.
Post Cold War, we were the only remaining super power. China had not yet entered the stage. Our policy makers learned quickly that they can use our overwhelming military force (Serbia is a perfect example), our massive intel service (Venezuela multiple attempts at coups), information dominance (Arab Spring), and economic coercive measures (normally mixed in with intel and military measures, example Russia today), to FORCE others to comply quickly and easily.
9-11 changed many of the rules and caused for a huge bloat in the intel service and DoD, after which we went full expeditionary and have since never stopped.
We operate with impunity (generally speaking, 9-11 is the exception) because the average American does not feel the pain when we bomb, sponsor coups, invade or occupy another nation. Merely 1% of the population is really impacted, those in the DoD or intel service (not everyone in the military or intel service deploy or get put in harms way, so the percentage impacted is extremely low). We have buffer nations (just like Russia wants to their West) both in the Atlantic/Europe and Asia/Pacific Rim, through which a threat has to come to get to us (even things like refugees generally flow through the buffer states before they come to us). We have an Atlantic and Pacific ocean that still help protect us to a large degree (huge natural obstacle). The American people do not care. The policy makers can use force with impunity, especially if they are a Democrat (Clinton, Obama, Biden).
Dat,
We have a sphere of influence, the largest in the world (all of Central and South America, parts of Africa and the Middle East, Western and Central Europe, the entire Pacific Rim), but we talk about how Russia should not have a sphere of influence, how this is wrong.
We have buffer states to our East (Europe) and West (Pacific Rim) through which threats trying to get to us must pass, but we tell the Russians how they have no right to have buffer states.
We freak out when the Chinese operate the Panama Canal (no military - just a civilian firm operating it) because of how this “could” impact us economically and militarily. We almost went to nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis and there are 90 miles of water between us and Cuba. We coerce other nations (Solomon Islands) to turn away lucrative Chinese deals because we don’t want the Chinese building de facto naval bases there (6,000 miles from our shore!). But then we want to lecture the Russians how they need to accept us (the worlds most powerful military, intel service and economy, a nuclear power) and NATO (the worlds most powerful military alliance) on their border!
Are you for real, or are you being sarcastic?
Imagine you are the Russian leader. The worlds most powerful military alliance that became offensive in 1999 when bombing Serbia (NATO), backed by the worlds most powerful military and intel service (US), which is quick to use military force in furthering their national agenda, wants to expand along your border. Imagine this nation has PROVEN a complete disregard to treaties and promises made (CFE, Ballistic Missile Treaty, No NATO East expansion, MINSK a German/French effort). This nation has shown the willingness to use force and be overtly hostile towards you in furthering their economic agenda: Syria is an ally where you have bases and they decided to invade in 2014, Iraq they lied about and invaded in 2003, Libya they tried to take in 2011, and Venezuela they keep trying to take with the last known effort being 2020. Would (((YOU))) really allow NATO and this nation to expand along your border? I think not.
This isn’t 1948 - 1989. Times have changed.
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