Posted on 04/10/2024 10:22:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a recent discussion with Alexander Stubb, who is the president of Finland, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria apparently thought it would be a cakewalk to get the newly elected European leader to say something negative and alarming about former President Donald Trump.
It did not go well for Fareed.
President Stubb ended up praising Trump for doing what is right.
Fareed, pushing a familiarly deceptive media line, asked President Stubb to comment on “what everybody is talking about,” namely that:
Donald Trump said he would tell Russia to do what you have to do, words to that effect, about NATO members if they hadn’t hit the 2% mark. What do you do about a president of the United States, the leader of the West, the leader of NATO, if he said that, assuming Trump is elected [in 2024].
President Stubb did not take the bait. Rejecting Fareed’s attempt to stir up dissension between Trump and NATO members, Stubb said that “the starting point is that Finland will get along with whoever is elected.” He then explained to Fareed an adult view of Trump’s remark:
We also know that former president Donald Trump is a transactionalist, and what he’s trying to do is push European states to increase their defense expenditure to 2% and I think he’s right in doing that because 20 out of 32 NATO members will have reached that by this Washington NATO summit.
That is, being rational, unlike what remains of our “news media,” Trump is a transactionalist.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Since Trump’s expertise is making deals (he wrote The Art of the Deal), Trump knows that if one wants to get something done in the real world, one has to enter into “transactions” with the relevant parties.
In those remarks about NATO, he merely let delinquent NATO members know that if they want continued U.S. military protection, they must make a transaction. They must give something, in this case, not even very much, just the 2% of GDP they had already promised to spend towards military spending.
President Stubb even pointed out that Trump has already been successful in this “because 20 out of 32 NATO members will have reached that by this [commitment] by the Washington NATO summit.
I thought “putting words in someone’s mouth” was one of the worst things you could do.
He made a great point. I never hear Republican politicians, Trump included, mention that the NATO countries are violating their treaty obligations by not spending enough on military forces.
I’m going to reference this article in discussions with libtard coworkers.
And, when those NATO members were questioned about why they never paid the 2% they agreed to pay, they answered “no one ever asked us”
Has anyone ever told Zakaria to his face that he is just trying to stir up trouble?
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