What is clear, however, is that Trump — who ostensibly spent four years as president of the United States — has little clue about what NATO is or what NATO does. And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish — the kind of outrageous nonsense that flows without interruption from an empty and unreflective mind.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, recalling an implausible conversation with an unnamed, presumably European head of state. “‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted responding. “‘No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
The former president’s message was clear: If NATO members do not pay up, then he will leave them to the mercy of a continental aggressor who has already plunged one European country into death, destruction and devastation.
Except NATO isn’t a mafia protection racket. NATO, in case anyone needs to be reminded, is a mutual defense organization, formed by treaty in 1949 as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union hardened into conflict. “The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” states Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
¿Por qué no los dos?
He doesn’t care, he’s doing what Putin tells him. Destabilise the western alliance
Can’t lose what you never had. Its laughable to pretend that Trump ever had a clue as to what NATO is or does.
He thinks NATO is his slum tenants and fancies himself a mob boss getting paid protection money.
My suspicion is that he got NATO and NAFTA confused years ago and never admitted it. Now he believes it’s about trade and defense.
If Putin doesn’t like it, then Trump doesn’t like it. He probably doesn’t even know why.
He doesn’t understand OUR military, how is he going to comprehend the utility of a trans-national mutual defense accord?
I’m frankly amazed he doesn’t choke on his food, he’s so fucking stupid.
He has Melania chew his food for him like a mama bird with its young.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jared does that for him.
You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
Boy, that’s rich coming from Il Douche.
From somebody being sued by their former attorney for not paying their bills
From somebody who was sued for not paying his contractors.
Doesn’t he owe a bunch of cops money from like 2016 still?
The only time the mutual defence treaty was triggered is because the US was attacked and all countries in NATO stepped up to the plate.
Not just stepped up to the plate, but went pretty much all-in on a COMPLETELY pointless invasion against what was almost certainly the wrong country.
That’s how committed they were to NATO.
I am assuming you mean the Iraq war, but that was not a NATO operation, it just happened to have many NATO allies providing support, not all of them.
To your point, it was called the “Coalition of the willing”. Article 5 was not invoked.
Article 5 was invoked in response to 9/11: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_110496.htm
That was Afghanistan.
Kind of, but not really. NATO did operations to ensure US’s immediate security against further terrost attacks. Once the US affirmed it had it’s shit together, NATO pulled out. Any countries that stuck around for the counter-attack wars (like Afghanistan and Iraq) did so under different banners. NATO does not encroach or encourage war, it exists to prevent it and will do what’s necessary up to the point a nation is deemed safe again.
It circles the injured sheep and fights off the wolf. Once this is done, it doesn’t then hunt down the fleeing wolf. This works very well because other animals aren’t scared of NATO controlling the lands, but the wolves are also scared of trying to attack that herd.
Similarly, if everything went wrong for the US in Afghanistan, NATO wouldn’t help. If the US retreated and started getting attacked in its homeland, NATO would.
At the time it was correct and very much not pointless. Where we fucked up was staying around and trying to nation build. Moment we destroyed al qaeda we should have left.
My implication is that if we really wanted to get Bin Laden / Al-Qaeda, the more sensible targets were Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. Which of course we didn’t go after. We had a goal of spilling some Arab blood, but wanted a target that would be a cooperative punching bag.
And even then, we still fucking failed. Al-Qaeda still exists. Or it was consumed by/transformed into/always secretly was just a branch of Daesh who are still going strong. Or maybe they weren’t really a coherent organization in the first place and were always more grassroots/franchised. Not to mention the Taliban are right back in power and doing their same shit. We accomplished nothing more than running the best possible recruitment campaign for the next generation of west-hating religious extremist warriors.
Al Qaeda was never in Iraq though.
Afghanistan was in response to 9/11 and where nato allies helped…
Completely different war.
Mission accomplished! (/s)
When did we destroy al qaeda?
And the attack was done by rogue non-state actors. Europe agreed to go burn a whole district because a thug who lived roughly there punched USA in the face. Now Europe faces an entire mafia from another town and Trump says “should’ve bought better gear, bye suckers”.
Trump knows what NATO is. This is rhetoric for his voters.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish — the kind of outrageous nonsense that flows without interruption from an empty and unreflective mind.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, recalling an implausible conversation with an unnamed, presumably European head of state.
The former president’s message was clear: If NATO members do not pay up, then he will leave them to the mercy of a continental aggressor who has already plunged one European country into death, destruction and devastation.
NATO, in case anyone needs to be reminded, is a mutual defense organization, formed by treaty in 1949 as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union hardened into conflict.
Or consider the time, last November, when Trump confused China and North Korea, telling an audience of supporters in Florida that “Kim Jong Un leads 1.4 billion people, and there is no doubt about who the boss is.
And because no one now expects him to be a responsible political figure with a coherent vision for the country, it’s as if no one blinks an eye when he rants and raves on the campaign trail.
The original article contains 1,108 words, the summary contains 231 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
He has this bizarre idea in his head that NATO is like one of his golf clubs with membership fees and not GDP pledges.
I can guarantee you that if it isn’t a woman’s ass we’re talking about, there’s not chance he’s grasped it.
Remember in 2016 when Republican types were adamant that Hillary wouldn’t be tough enough on Putin, and that Liberals were Communists? And that the Liberals would let Russia do whatever it wanted?
And now those same Republicans are outspoken against helping Ukraine, and want to let Russia just have it. Their preferred candidate wants to dismantle the organization of countries that stands as the United front against Russian expansion. Working deliberately and blatantly toward Putin’s interests isn’t a problem to them at all.
Back then, I thought that if there was a single (decent) principle they actually stand for, that would have been it. Apparently I was wrong.
Kompromat in the form of the RNC’s emails that have not been leaked.
Emails that WikiLeaks apparently has but said “nah we’re not going to release them because there’s totes nothing in there trust us”.
They could’ve been neutral and trustworthy. Instead they had an axe to grind against Hillary, and prioritized that over being known for objective truth.
At this point what could possibly be in those emails that their voters wouldn’t just dismiss?
At this point I suspect the main damage is done. But the dirt was found out a different way.
The big secret to hide was campaign funding and coordination. But Trump won anyway. Then didn’t even get in trouble for it.
And later the Russia>>NRA dark money link was found and reported on. Without the media then going ape shit that the funnel was really Russia>>NRA>>GOP. And without any of the Biden administration cracking down on what happened.
So I suspect it’s why they’re all even more brazen now. Some of the dirt was found. It didn’t amount to any punishment. So why bother trying to hide now?
Trump supporters are more pathetic than the man himself. This is exemplified simply because this demonstration of his ineptitude as well as his various acts of indecency and immorality cannot and will not sway their opinion of the man.
The only way to change their opinion of him is for Trump himself to “go woke” so hard they no longer recognize him as their Cheeto covered Jesus.
Both sides though, right? I mean… we have one guy wanting to plunge America into absolute chaos by dismantling hundreds of years of progress and ending democracy as we know it just so he can protect his sad little crumbling empire of corruption….
And the other guy is old.
Totally comparable!
And the other guy is slightly older
You gotta pay your bills.
This fucking guy… LOL oh man that is something isn’t it? The guy famous for never paying his bills says this about a REAL life and death situation… FUCK TRUMP
Never forget… Every accusation is a confession with these people
D. Trump, traitor
Stop applying Hanlon’s Razor to Trump.
It’s fucking malice.
¿Porque no los dos?
Hanlon’s Razor If youre curious.
