Posted on 07/11/2018 8:54:44 AM PDT by Mariner
Brussels (AFP) - US President Donald Trump traded barbs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a tense NATO summit Wednesday after he accused Berlin of being "captive" to Russia and demanded it immediately step up defence spending.
The two-day meet in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for defending the continent.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, shot back that she knew what it meant to be under Kremlin domination and Germany had the right to make its own policy choices.
European alliance members were braced for criticism from Trump on defence spending, but his blistering attack on Germany at a breakfast meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg took the summit by surprise.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
UN out of the US, US out of the UN, and US troops out of GERMANY
Haha....
This made me chuckle.
Trump MOAB's Germany at NATO breakfast, starting after 2:02, Mike Pompeo sitting next to Trump enjoying it - Go Mr. President!!
The contradiction here - which Trump is brilliant to point out - is that Europe keeps saying the old boilerplate about needing a strong NATO with the US in, to protect against any invasion from Russia.
But then Europe turns around and makes generous trade deals with Russia, which is supposedly hostile ... so which is it?
Russia is friendly enough to do trade deals, so we don’t need NATO anymore ...
or Russia is still a threat, we still need NATO, and Europe shouldn’t be making generous trade deals with Russia?
Pick one, Europe. Pick only one.
I watched the 8 minute video of this. Trump didn't b*tch slap Merkel once, he made the point close to ten times during his comments. To say he emphasized how bad Germany is underpaying dues and sending billions to Russia is a huge understatement.
It sure was a blistering spanking of Merkel. WOW.
+1 what you said. Of course, the senate is harumphing like the geriatric fools they are. What a worthless bunch of geezers.
“I love it that we have a president who just tells the blunt truth.”
Me too.
Socialism can only pay for defense, or socialism. Milton Friedman called it guns and butter. Capitalism can pay for both.
Would you really like to see another world class military pop up in Europe heavily dominated by Germany?
Tell me you wouldn’t, please...
We need to pull out of NATO and broker treaties with individual countries.
NATO, like the UN, is a toxic, bloated tick on the back of the United States.
POTUS pulls back the curtain! Germany controls the EU & is controlled by Russia through the natural gas pipeline deal. All the while global communists hammer muh Russia as the great threat daily! EU must want our military there to battle the jihadi army they imported when they rise up! Russia wont attack their customers!
Can you say, Monroe Doctrine?
“He’s treating the entire world liked it’s a leveraged buy out deal. And he’s letting everyone know he perceives the bottom line and will work to make it most favorable to the US.”
Corporate raider Carl Icahn is one of the persons he admires....
murkul looks more and more like an incompetent trying to do a job for which she is not qualified.
This morning in Europe!
As the NATO summit began in Brussels, President Trump delivered a clear message to Americas allies: The transatlantic Alliance is too important not to invest in. The United States is paying far too much, and other countries are not paying enough, the President said this morning.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoed that goal. We will continue to focus on defense spending, because as the President just said, NATO Allies have to invest more in defense, and thats not exactly what theyre doing, he said. President Trump thanked the Secretary General for working hard to make progress. He understands the problem.
While former President Obama also urged our NATO allies to share the defense burden, President Trump is the one getting results. Since President Trump took office, each member state has increased its defense spending: In 2017 alone, we saw an increase of more than 4.8 percent in defense spending among our NATO Allies. But thats not nearly enough, President Trump makes clear.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600daily/
She didn’t just grow up in eastern Germany, she was STASI!
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