President Trump set members of NATO on their collective ears beginning several days before his NATO trip, shaming those who are not paying their shares of NATO expenses, each apparently relying on the U.S. to “pick up the slack.” In the recent NATO meetings, the President continued that narrative by publicly implored those NATO members to do the right thing and quickly catch-up with their past due fees.
Instead of a collective “Yes!” from the American press at the resolve of the President to goad NATO members to do what decades ago they agreed to do regarding joint NATO funding by its members, the Mainstream Media and many current and former Democrat politicians have lambasted the President in numerous ways often degrading the President and his actions toward U.S. allies in this regard:
NY Times
Mr. Trump said that other NATO countries had agreed to significant increases in military spending in response to his demands. But within a few hours, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minister, said the allies had simply agreed to keep a 2014 commitment to increase military spending to 2 percent of the gross domestic product by 2024. “A communiqué was issued yesterday,” Mr. Macron told reporters after the meeting in Brussels. “This communiqué is clear. It reaffirms the 2 percent by 2024 commitments. That’s all.”
Washington Post
The NATO summit was concluding on course Thursday, with European leaders pleased that their unruly American counterpart had been surprisingly well behaved, if not truly conciliatory. Their planes were getting gassed up at the airport, and they were ready to call the whole shebang a success and jet home. Then President Trump showed up, a half-hour late and with another agenda. He effectively took a meeting over Georgia and Ukraine hostage by seizing the floor and, one by one, scolding and shaming countries for their defense spending.
Trump was on such a tear that some diplomats said they feared he could well try to withdraw the United States from NATO, rupturing the existing world order. For more than an hour, the transatlantic alliance was caught in the chaos of Trump’s making — until the president called an impromptu news conference to announce that everything, in fact, was just fine. “I believe in NATO,” Trump said, claiming credit for forcing Western allies to raise their defense spending to “levels never thought of before.” He called the alliance “a fine-tuned machine,” remarking that there had been “great unity, great spirit, great esprit de corps.”
MSNBC “Morning Joe” After the press conference held by President Trump after the NATO meeting, MSNBC’s Morning Joe’s panel that included Lawrence O’Donnell had some especially critical things to say about facts President Trump gave in his speech answering questions:
Morning Joe gave President Trump’s approval rating to be 11%: “The lowest in history for any first-year U.S. President.” Here is a compilation of multiple polling companies — most given credit by all as “a credible polling source” — NONE of which was even close to Joe’s 11% number.
- Rasmussen Reports 46 %
- Economist/YouGov 43%
- Reuters 41%
- Emerson. 43%
- Gallup. 41%
- Quinnipiac. 40%
- Harvard-Harris 47%
- IBD/TIPP. 41%
I’m confused: how does a national cable news morning television show — a subsidiary of NBC News — quote approval numbers that are patently false in a conversation in which they are discussing President Trump’s alleged “lies?” (Do they have any viewers?)
Trump not the ONLY President Chiding NATO Countries
President George W. Bush at least twice during his 2 terms in the White House stated NATO members must pay the amount agreed to by all member nations for NATO defense. Barack Obama said the same thing during his presidency. U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called on other NATO members to spend more on defense as well.
What is wrong for this President insisting that NATO countries each pay what they previously committed to pay for NATO defense THAT THEY HAVE NEVER BEFORE PAID?
The Burden
Let’s put NATO spending by nation in perspective:
Do the math: The United States is paying 72% of the total budget of NATO
Summary
It’s a travesty that NATO countries have for so many years taken advantage of the good faith and commitment of the American people by refusing to pay amounts they committed to pay for defense. While doing so they expected (and saw) the United States government pay as it promised. Yet those on the Left in Europe and here in the United States and Canada continue to demean not just the United States, but President Donald Trump and the American people.
There is non-stop narrative from those international “policy experts” that questions the President’s intelligence on these and other matters, accuse him of demeaning our foreign partners, jeopardizing international security and that of the U.S. by his consistent insistence that NATO countries do the right thing, and that no previous President has ever done such.
What’s the difference? It’s Donald Trump!
Left-leaning journalists, broadcasters, and even politicians long ago adopted a politically elite perspective that empowers them (at least in their own minds) to “know” more about what is right, what is best, and what is acceptable and unacceptable for U.S. presidents to say and do. We at the Truth News Network (TNN) call those people “Coastal Potomac Political Elitists.” These self-appointed hypocrites ignore the billions of dollars shown in the above chart that demonstrate America’s commitment to helping NATO countries with defense against foreign enemies. Further, the U.S. has in numerous cases jumped in with military personnel and equipment to rush to the aid of NATO partners as they faced military confrontation with NATO enemies. No other country has ever provided to NATO the resources as has the United States.
Here’s the truth: the Left — whether we call them “The Swamp” or the “Deep State” — have become so entrenched in the business of doing politics in Washington D.C., they have “forgotten” or maybe purposely “put aside” their commitments of service to the American people, instead daily pushing forward with their personal agendas instead of America’s agenda. This all happens while they are aghast at their dismal approval ratings with American voters.
Americans care deeply about the state of “their” country. Americans elected Donald Trump to run things in D.C. — choosing him over Hillary Clinton — at least in part because their trust in members of the federal government has over years melted away. The American people have embraced the term “The Swamp” used to describe the individuals, organizations, and departments of the U.S. Government that have been for 2.5 centuries charged to take care of the business of America. That is a sad state in which we find the government of the greatest country in World history.
Just imagine the state of our internal and foreign policy IF those individuals, organizations, and departments of Government would simply step aside and drop their personal animus and hatred for Donald Trump and simply give him a chance! Every president elected in my lifetime had a significant number of American voters who did not want them to be President. But never in my lifetime have I seen a political group (“Coastal Potomac Political Elitists”) spend so much energy and resources to continually attack 24/7 a duly elected U.S. President.
Their purposes have become obvious to Americans: they are threatened by this President who is not obligated to any campaign contributors, political organizations or groups, any advisors, any foreigners, or any Americans OTHER THAN AMERICAN VOTERS!
Regarding foreign policy matters (including NATO): in every action initiated by President Trump to address those matters, those on the Left continually lament the methods used by this President in doing so — his intelligence, his knowledge, and his understanding of foreign policy in general, and policies that pertain to each. Examples: Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and NATO twice. TRUMP’S METHODS HAVE WORKED TO ACHIEVE HIS STATED GOALS EACH TIME! And this has happened in each at the chagrin of those from the Left.
Americans are beyond being tired of these actions. Americans elected this President because he is NOT cut from the same cloth as “normal” U.S. politicians.
Do members of “The Swamp” not understand the disgust on the part of Americans?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
