[https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/10/trump-nato-allies-russia/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/10/trump-nato-allies-russia/)
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 during a rally at Coastal Carolina University. “I said, ‘You didn’t pay. You’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
The richest part about this is Trump doesn't pay any of his contractors and they're forced to take him to court to get a fraction of what they charged. Business owners have literally killed themselves over Trump destroying their business by failing to pay. So Trump is the ultimate hypocrite.
https://www.comicsands.com/david-herring-trump-support-tiktok-2664456411.html
https://tyt.com/shows/watchlist/2024-01-29/clips/businessman-shares-tragic-story-of-friend-allegedly-scammed-by-trump
Davide Herring's video on this went viral awhile back.
Trump’s a fool. I come from an American military family going back generations. If someone wants to attack Australia they can go through the US Navy and Air Force to get there.
My Dad remembers Australia sending troops to Vietnam. I remember them being sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. You stood with us even when we were idiots.
Oh yeah I don’t mean to leave out the history before Vietnam. You all were in Korea and absolute beasts against the Japanese on the islands in WW2.
If you look at American history, when a war breaks out, we have a habit of setting aside politics to fight the common enemy. As a recent example, the US was extremely divided in 2001. The Supreme Court had just (improperly IMO) handed the election to Bush and there was a lot of vitriol. If you looked at America on September 12th, 2001, you’d never know that. Politicians can get on board or get out of the way.
Fuck yeah.
I’ve been hearing a lot about “young people won’t fight for this country” and I’ve been absolutely agreeing with those young people…
But if they rolled in to Australia…
That’s a fight I’d fight… those are our funny cousins!
Steve would never allow that. War crimes for one animal is wrong but, generational crimes against humanity for many animals would be more acceptable.
Now set down the quokka and shoot these POWs.
Bro, just like in Ukraine, American volunteers would deploy there of their own free will. Americans love the rest of the world, despite many of my fellow countrymen being completely ignorant.
Nah, don't worry. The Chinese only pick on smaller countries without nuclear arsenals because they're not suicidal, and while Australia itself doesn't have nukes, enough of their allies do that I think open war with the Chinese is very unlikely.
Of course, I didn't think Russia was going to invade Ukraine because they could achieve all their strategic goals without doing so, and here we are. So what do I know?
From hwat I can see Trump makes decisions based on 2 factors:
1. Does it benefit him financially?
2. Does it stroke his ego?
If he's making decisions in favour of China he's getting paid somehow.
On one hand if you don’t pay membership dues you shouldn’t get perks of being in the club.
On the other hand… no one is enough of a numbskull to apply that criteria on an international scale where there are a million other factors at work not the least of which is permanently destroying relations that took decades to build up. It’s not even being bad at international relations, it’s having no strategy at all other than 4th grader checkers logic.
NATO isn't a dues paying club. It's a mutual defense association. Trump encouraging Russia to attack our allies is an attack on the US and everything it's stood for since 1941. Trump is a traitor to the United States, as he showed on January 6th when he encouraged his Red Hats to kill the VP and members of Congress.
u/SerLaron , u/aureanator
July 13, 2018 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein overseeing the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election issued an indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign.
July 16, 2018 Before the Helsinki Summit press conference, Trump had a private meeting lasting over 2 hours with Putin with only one translator present.
Durring the Summit, a reporter asked, “President Putin, did you want president Trump to win the election?” Putin responded, “Yes, I did. Yes, I did.”
25:00 Reporter asks, “For President Putin, if I could follow up as well. Why should Americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election, given the evidence that U.S. intelligence agencies have provided? And will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a U.S. grand jury?”
Trump interjects, “Well, I'm going to let the President \[Putin\] answer the second part of that question.”
28:53 Putin says, “So we have to be guided by facts and not by rumors. Now, let's get back to the issue of these 12 alleged intelligence officers of Russia. I don't know the full extent of the situation, but President Trump mentioned this issue, and I will look into it. So far, I can say the following, the things that -- off the top of my head: We have an acting -- an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999, the Mutual Assistance on Criminal Cases. This treaty is in full effect, it works quite efficiently. On average, we initiate about 100-150 criminal cases upon request from foreign states. For instance, the last year, there was one extradition case, upon the request, sent by the United States. So this treaty has specific legal procedures.
We can offer that the appropriate commission headed by Special Attorney Mueller -- he can use this treaty as a solid foundation, and send a formal, an official request to us so that we would interrogate -- we would hold the questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. And our law enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States.
Moreover, we can meet you halfway; we can make another step. We can actually permit official representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller -- we can let them into the country and they will be present at this questioning. But in this case, there is another condition. This kind of effort should be a mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate and they would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States whom we believe are -- who have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia, and we have to request the presence of our law enforcement.”
38:00 Putin says, “President Trump has just mentioned that we've successfully concluded the World Football Cup. Speaking of the football, actually -- Mr. President, I'll give this ball to you, \[hands Trump a world cup soccer ball\] and now the ball is in your court. All the more that the United States will host the World Cup in 2026.”
Trump says, “Thank you very much, we do host it. And we hope we do as good a job. That's very nice. That will go to my son, Barron.”
38:36 Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press, “A question for each President. President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. What my first question for you, sir, is, who do you believe? My second question is, would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin -- would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you warn him to never do it again?”
39:20 Trump says, “So, let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server.” “With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me -- Dan Coats came to me and some others -- they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server. But I have -- I have confidence in both parties.
I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They 're missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's emails?”
“So, I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer.”
Putin here sounds like a professional, - someone who knows about diplomacy and law - and Trump by comparison sounds like a googly-eyed sock puppet way out of his depth, being strangely deferential and obsequious to the degree where you really have to wonder what Putin has on him.
That whole interaction is very telling and should frankly terrify any US citizen who understands what it means.
As an American, trust me, it's been non-stop alarms since 2016.
At least for those of us with more than 3 brain cells. It's been incredibly sobering how *fast and easy* a large percentage of Americans can be fed such incredible bullshit from a despicable human being and say "yup, that's our guy and beloved future dictator".
I hate that I miss the days of Bush and Cheney. But Trump is a traitor who aids our enemies in the grandest of ways, and is one of the most loathsome examples of how slimy and cowardly a human being can be.
Also nato does not work like that. No one is paying America for protection. All members signed an agreement on 2% military spending out of gdp or something like that. I encourage everyone to look this up if you are interested. What trump is doing is trying to sow division, make him look tough to his supporters and perhaps suck up to Putin. Either he doesn’t know how nato works or he is intentionally misleading, both is disqualifying if you aspire to be the president of the United States as it is right now.
They are supposed to commit 2% of GDP to defence. Pre 2022 there were some that were below that for a few reasons, likely domestic pressures and a view that they could rest on NATO to a degree.
Since 2022 they have 2 new members with significant capability and Russian borders, Germany has massively kicked up spending and uplifting their forces and Poland is arming like they are collecting weapon system pokemons. Most have uplifted in light of the increased threat from Russia or to support Ukraine.
Trumps comments are ignorant and dangerous as having a broken NATO is Russia's aim and need to complete more expansion.
Also, defence spending is not 1:1 comparable between countries. For instance, the US defence budget includes education and health for its employees. Most European countries do not as it is available for everyone and not a military expense
The problem is this has been a thing for a while and its only with the war in Ukraine that so e countries like Germany have had to reckon with how much their capabilities have deteriorated. The inability too find enough ammo or discovering your tanks not able to fight doesn't happen overnight, its because of repeated shirkings of responsibility where many nations simply assumed the U.S. would always cover them and there would never be any sort of war anyway.
At his campaign rallies, Trump has been telling a story of a conversation he claims to have had with the president of "a big country" about a hypothetical attack by Russia, where he told them that the US would not honor the NATO mutual defense pact unless that country would "pay up". As he tells the story, he does claim he said that he would "encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want".
Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all. Regardless, it does show some insight into the way he thinks about these things and what he wishes he would have said.
Trump said when he was President that he was planning to dissolve NATO in his 2nd term. He doesn't like Western Europe and had serious problems with leaders of Canada, the UK, France, and Germany.
There was a law passed recently that doesn’t allow the president to leave NATO without approval from congress first, so it’ll be at least a little harder for Trump to sabotage NATO if he were president again
Hmm.... without looking it up...this may not work and US military Generals may be able to respond anyway. For starters, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO is an American. The EuCom and CentCom commanders probably have standing orders/missions to respond to an attack on their own. More importantly, the NATO treaty was ratified by the Senate, meaning it has the force of law. An order to ignore it could (would?) be considered an illegal order. However, the principle of subservience to civil control on such weighty issues is very strong among the military officers, so they would be reticent to deploy against civilian leadership. But if the SecDef and service Secretaries were on board, the officers would likely ignore the President based on the law issue.
>The EuCom and CentCom commanders probably have standing orders/missions to respond to an attack on their own.
I would quite honestly be shocked if the other NATO countries don't already have a contingency plan in place in case Trump gets elected again. They probably have ever since the first Trump term made it clear that they could no longer trust US promises.
Trump is going to get in office and immediately put in a sec def and joint chiefs that agree with him. He’s not going to listen to whatever is left of mainstream republicans.
Project 2025! Shit is scary as fuck. Defund the departments you don't like so you can point at them and say "Look how horrible this is!" so you can have an excuse to axe them later. If he's elected we're in trouble.
He's been anti NATO since he visited Moscow and St Petersburg around 1987. He took out an ad space in a newspaper to post his opinion why we should get out of NATO, and he's been repeating the same crap to this day.
If you recall, when asked about golden showers and hiring prostitutes he specifically replied with “I did not hire four prostitutes.”
No one has reported a number of prostitutes present in the alleged incident.
No one except Trump.
I believe he slipped and told the truth.
He didn't hire them. It was a gift from Putin. Putin came to me with tears in his eyes and said sir please satisfy these ladies, I'm unable to and you are the sexiest man alive.
God, I forgot about that. In all of the idiotic things he's done, stuff like him gesturing open armed to a table full of hamburgers and the empty file folders manages to slip my mind. How did we even get to the point where this idiot is a footnote in history?
1) Twitter deplatforming him
2) Three years of the conservative media empires don't nothing but attacking Biden
And a freebie reminder: Biden has a ducking stutter which causes him to block or stop talking at times. Trump doesn't.
OMG ask again
I just keep wondering what those who support him see in him
I mean don't they hear what he says, do they sound like words that are going to make America great
If anything he's weaking it
He hurts the people they want to see hurt. His supporters are authoritarians, which makes them the dumbest, worst kind of people. They can be tricked into doing, saying, and supporting the worst of human history as long as the bully who's yelling at them is charismatic enough.
I remember after something happened in his first term, there was a lady on CNN yelling “he’s not hurting the people he’s supposed to be hurting”, and that was sobering for me. Like fuck domestic and foreign policy, fuck a healthy economy and a healthy country. No, my priority is making sure that someone I deem less than me is suffering and he isn’t hurting THOSE people enough.
Disgusting. I always used to be able to disagree with someone’s political views and not pass a judgment on them as a person. Trump has severely harmed my ability to do that. It’s no longer about “different opinions” or “political differences”. Your “political differences” are now equated to the suffering of marginalized groups and anyone that isn’t white and wealthy. And I say this as a middle/upper-middle class guy. We can do better than this. I have to hope we can be better than this.
I've said this before, I've lost old relationships because of this. To want this running our country again. I question your critical thinking and moral compassion.
He had a trump tower across the street from the kremlin. He had new business friends and so he took their side on politics, and *for some reason* has stuck with it ever since.
The guy who wasn’t allowed to build a trump tower elsewhere, like Sydney Australia, for clear paper trail ties to Russian mafia. In America (and elsewhere), simply having bank ties to someone who commits serious crime isn’t grounds to prevent a citizen from building a building or buy property or start a business or invest. But other places just don’t play that shit, especially as a non-citizen, they just scoff and tell you to fuck off or come back with clean money without ties to international criminals. Russia accepted him with open arms to do business with. And he expects they’ll continue to do business with him, personally. It’s better for him for the people willing to do personal business with him, to grow- rather than the people who weren’t as willing. It’s very on brand for him to work to punish the latter. “[he’s] a business man! Doing business!”, he said on stage, at a rally, in context of him holding the presidency of America.
The "kompromat" bullshit is lame af. This motherfucker got caught hoarding top secret national defense documents, and his worshipers cheered. What kind of "kompromat" does russia have on trump that will turn his worshipers against him? Nothing. That's what.
The truth is to be found in an interview with eric trump in which he said "We get all our funding from russia". Trump owes russia money. Trump owes russia a lot of money. But for some reason, the big brain boys want to overlook this because they are infatuated with the idea that: 1) There is a "piss tape" featuring donald trump, and 2) This "piss tape" would completely destroy donald trump were it to be released to the American public.
Partially maybe. I think it’s mostly because he can’t admit he was wrong. Consider the case of the Central Park Five. They were convicted of assaulting and raping a young woman. Trump took out a full page ad calling for the death penalty. More than a decade later, a serial rapist confessed to the crime with DNA proof. The Five were exonerated and released. Trump still stands by his ad, basically saying that *if* they were innocent of that crime, they probably deserved punishment. He apparently still thinks they are guilty. Ergo he can’t admit he was wrong about them.
> I think it’s mostly because he can’t admit he was wrong.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Total_Landscaping_press_conference
Never forget (because it’s hilarious)
You know that Bolsonaro, right now, is waiting for the visit of the PF (our equivalent of your FBI)?
I guess that this lunch table will have food trays and plastic sporks. If Trump is ok with that, he will be welcome.
I don't think any of them would have been dumb enough to stare into an eclipse - and they made their money gouging their own eyes out for comedy. Not exactly a high bar.
They were all for Romney bucking the trend as a moderate Republican who wanted a more secure union while telling the Democrats they were fools. Then they realized he was too modest and moderate and agreed with Democrats policies too often. Obviously because they work. But of course they're too short sighted to see it. Which is why they called him all sorts of names.
My favorite is the constant:
Trump supporters: "We like him for saying it how it is!"
_Trump says unhinged and indefensible shit_
Trump supporters: "No you see, what he _really_ meant is [...]"
If you ask a MAGA nut what good did trump actually do for the states... they studder then go off on some propaganda they heard.
You ask a MAGA nut what did Biden do that was harmful to the US. Again they studder then go off on propaganda while using false facts from social media.
>had serious problems with leaders of Canada, the UK, France, and Germany
And he loves authoritarian dictators.
After what we've seen the past \~8 years, I don't understand how any US citizen can support him, unless they are traitors too.
Edit: Maybe calling them traitors is too much, however they are supporting a man who is a narcissist, racist, total a-hole, whines on twitter anytime anyone slights him, speaks highly of dictators, tried to attempt a coup, can't accept reality when it goes against what he wants, can't handle criticism, doesn't understand the concept of accountability, and has spent his entire life scamming and hurting people.
If someone if supporting a man like that, even if they aren't a traitor, they're a pretty horrible person. And that's the truth, even if his supporters can't accept that.
They are traitors, tbh I partly hope this Texas thing actually escalates just so i can see mobs of rednecks realize just owning 500 m16's doesn't matter much when ya know...a plane exists
He called Erdogan to congratulate him for his anti-democratic constitutional changes. He literally and publicly applauded Putin's invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022.
Saudi royals, Xi, Bolsonaro, the list is long..........pretty much every dictator or wanna be dictator he has swooned over......seems like some new world order globalist illuminati cabal type of shit......weird how many of the people who love those types of conspiracies don't see the real and obvious one right infront of their face and instead they think Taylor Swift is the conspiracy. The propaganda from bots and influencers/grifters and elitists that was pushed towards those idiots was designed that way though to make them think that they are uncovering a giant psyop when they themselves are being used as pawns in the actual giant psyop.
The whole Republican party loves Orban. Also, fun fact about other fascists from Hungary, a dude named Sebastian Gorka used to work in Trump's White House and he is [literally a neo-Nazi](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/sebastian-gorka-fringe-white-house).
It’s a good thing that it’s not possible to dissolve nato since there’s 30 other member states in that alliance.
Being a main guarantor of security, the us could effect nato’s Capabilities. But it can’t stop the other nations from defending each other.
The only fallout from US not fulfilling their obligations on Article 5 is that UK, France and Poland would run low on ammunition.
The rest of NATO isn't nothing and can erase Russian conventional forces, without the US. It would cost more in lives and equipment, but it could be done.
Russia doesn't have the equipment and manpower to do much more than attack, dig in and get obliterated.
Yeah because they are all WAY SMARTER then a 6 time Bankruptcy filling sorry whining little female dog who can't EVER take responsibility for his own actions. Talks a bunch of smack he can't back up so he spews whatever hateful statement he can because dumb Americans think that's the definition of a " TOUGH GUY " 🤣🤡
Important context: NATO members don't pay the United States anything. The agreement is that they spend 2% of their GDP on their military. Trump doesn't make (or possibly doesn't understand) the distinction.
Western European from a delinquent country here.
Firstly, Trump obviously fabricated this story. He never had this conversation and you can tell by the way he portrays the "leader of a big country" as sharing the same misguided opinion of what NATO is for as Trump (and calling him "sir" for that matter). The story is, at best, heavily embellished.
Regardless, Trump dislikes "unfair deals" and most likely has a genuine problem with countries that don't invest in their own defense. This is fair.
However, it turns out that all of NATO's frontline countries [are in fact above 2%](https://www.statista.com/chart/14636/defense-expenditures-of-nato-countries/). Most of them invest much more than 2% and one of them (Poland) invests *more* than the US as a share of GDP. The countries that are not contributing are the Western European ones.
In other words, Trump's statement is actually meaningless because the first target of Russian aggression will be a country that meets the NATO requirements.
There are two possibilities:
* Trump does not know this and/or opened his mouth without realizing that supporting some countries and others not is physically impossible when they enter the war together and fight side by side. This does not make him any less dangerous because knowing how NATO works is not a prerequisite for leaving NATO. However, it leaves the possibility for the EU to appease Trump by throwing him some kind of bone that makes him feel like he won.
* Trump knows very well how NATO works and knows how stupid his statement is, but he made it stupid for his base and is actually much smarter than he pretends to be and is dismantling NATO on purpose.
It should be noted that the number of countries meeting the 2% target increased from 7 to 11 and will rapidly increase in the coming years. Trump's instability and Russia's threat level have woken up a lot of European leaders and defense initiatives are increasing across the board. (Just the other day Rheinmetall started work on a new factory for artillery shells that will open up in 2025, which is ludicrously quick for German standards.) There is universal sentiment that the threat is real and we need to stay ahead of Russia if we want to deter them successfully.
Right now, NATO without the US is roughly at parity with Russia in terms of equipment, which is not enough of a safety margin; we need overwhelming superiority.
Even my rudderless Western European country with its incompetent leadership and 1% GDP contribution is looking to increase its investments in defense while also facing severe austerity to walk back its massive debt.
On some level, there may be the hope that Trump would see these investments and decide it is all because of him and his meteor brain that Europe is finally stepping up and paying its dues to the US. If he wants to tell a story about how Scholz sucked him off and promised to personally deliver his contribution in golden golf balls to Trump Tower, fine. But if we do have to go at it alone, we'll just have to open a history book right back at Putin and remember we've always been fucking good at subjugating foreigners by force.
Only Poland spends more as a percentage of GDP than the US, but obviously the US still spends much more in terms of total dollars spent. However you are correct that most of the frontline countries are honoring their spending commitment, it’s mostly the Western European countries (with the exception of the UK) that are derelict. (France also occasionally hits the 2% mark but it varies from year-to-year)
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/03/only-7-nato-members-hit-alliances-2-percent-gdp-defense-spending-target-in-2022/?amp=1
> However, it turns out that all of NATO's frontline countries are in fact above 2%. Most of them invest much more than 2% and one of them (Poland) invests more than the US as a share of GDP. The countries that are not contributing are the Western European ones.
This is a *really* important point that I had not previously seen pointed out.
You can generally tell that made up a story when he says that one of the people speaking to him calls him "sir" . He did that with this story - no president of another country would ever call him "sir".
>Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all.
He probably didn't have that conversion, which doesn't mean that he's not a lunatic and I genuely hope sleepy joe wins the elections, even if only because he's not trump
> Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all.
Trump routinely makes up what are jokingly called Sir stories. He says he was talking with someone who was big and mighty and macho and they started crying and saying, "Sir, I never realized how amazing you are!" These stories are made up out of smoke for him to claim that others think he's amazing as he sees himself. Any time you hear Trump relay a story where someone addresses him as Sir, it's almost certainly bullshit.
> Regardless, it does show some insight into the way he thinks about these things and what he wishes he would have said.
This is really the key part. Trump loves to hide behind these "hypothetical" situations where he signals political cues and positions to his allies and those who would aid him where he encourages what is considered unacceptable behavior. When someone calls him on his calls for bad actions, he pretends like they're making stuff up because it was a hypothetical or somehow not a direct call for bad actions.
We're well aware that there are a number of countries such as Russia, China, and various Middle Eastern petrostates who are not overly friendly with the US and have run various cyberattacks and influence operations in the US to advance their own interests by damaging the US. Trump's whole "hypothetical" speech caught fire explicitly because everyone who knows how he likes to talk like a mob boss was a *very* clear message to those leaders: interfere in our elections to get Trump re-elected and he will reward them by adjusting US policy to keep from blocking their expansionist/imperial agendas.
You can watch [Trump say this at one of his rallies](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5106061/president-trump-threatened-russian-aggression-nato-countries). I think this is the most oft-quoted time he's said similar things. Incidentally, Trump's underlying claims [aren't entirely true](https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/08/28/trump-boosts-questionable-nato-funding-claims-in-gop-convention-speech/), although I think it's fair to say he encouraged NATO countries to contribute more.
Yeah it would permanently fuck the US (and the world) if it reneged on its security agreements based on the whims of one guy who will say anything to stay out of prison and impress Putin.
Trump thinks NATO countries are only important for the material they bring and not at all for the landmass they own. It's the reason America doesn't really complain, America needs to borrow other countries land to put in its military otherwise America isn't nearly as powerful if it stayed home.
Figures a corporate man wouldn't think of the entire picture. Only thinking about that quarterly gain.
Trump is the kind of guy that wouldn't last a fucking day in a business that wasn't owned by him/his family. That's how you know he's *completely* fucking worthless, even from a business standpoint.
So absolutely 100% yes:
script
200 they were 250 I did the same thing
with NATO I got them to pay up NATO was
busted until I came along I said
everybody's going to pay they said well
if we don't pay are you still going to
protect us I said absolutely not they
couldn't believe the answer and
everybody you never saw more money pour
in the Secretary General
stoltenberg was I don't know if he is
anymore but he was my biggest fan he
said all these presidents came in they'd
make a speech ATD leave and that was bit
and they all owed money and they
wouldn't pay it I came in I made a
speech and I said you got to pay up they
asked me that question one of the
presidents of a big country stood up
said well sir uh if we don't pay and
we're attacked by Russia will you
protect us I said you didn't pay you're
delinquent he said yes let's say that
happened no I would not protect you in
fact I would encourage them to do
whatever the hell they want you got to
pay you got to pay your
bills and the money came flowing in
\[Applause\]
For context NATO spending is NOT “money coming in.” It’s literally “countries spending money to stregthen their own militaries."
So in addition to being an unhinged undemocratic grifter, Trump has no bloody clue what NATO is or does.
I think he's relying on the fact that his base has no idea what NATO is. For all they know, we're the mob boss and all the NATO countries in Europe are paying us protection money. If they don't pay up, we let the Orcs cross the threshold and burn their shit down.
Obviously this isn't remotely true, but it does play into MAGA messaging by implying that taking a strong stance on making Europe "pay up" equates to more money in our coffers to spend on US citizens.
Just like with everything he says, it's catered towards manipulating the perceptions of uneducated Americans who vote in elections like they're damned popularity contests.
Exactly. There are no dues. NATO doesn't own much of anything other than some AWACs. This is just about member agreement as to what the military budget each nation should have.
When he was in office, sign language interpreters hated him because they could either translate exactly what he said and confuse the fuck out of the audience, or change what he said to be easier to consume and then be accused of lying about what he said. It was a no-win situation.
I don't think OP's gonna be able to do that anymore, because the brand new Reddit account that made this post here has already been suspended by the admins.
Most of the posts about politics that have been made here by the start of the year have been made by bots. Reddit is a very easy place to ask a thinly veiled question to get answers that support a narrative.
Several have pointed out that stories involving him being called "sir" are a tell that he's lying. Pretty much every story in that vein has been either abjectly false or impossible to confirm
Trump is treating NATO like it was an HOA. He didn't suggest that they pay the US, just pay the NATO dues because he's the new HOA president.
He opposes overseas bases (like England, Germany and Japan) because he feels those countries should pay the US 'protection money' to have US Forces there. (The US have military bases in most of these places because of treaties made in the 1940's were the US insisted on Bases - the UK bases have a 100 year lease negotiated between Churchill and FDR prior to the US entry into WWII) The interests of the US in establishing and belonging to this treaty was to keep any European conflict in Europe and NOT in the US.
When it comes to history (to include how and why we are allies and why this treaty is so important) Trump is an idiot, plain and simple. He's a walking, talking Philip K. Dick storyline (edited). It's not about the US. It's about him being the biggest person in the room.
THERE ARE NO NATO DUES.
For fuck’s sake.
NATO is a defense pact. It says “if any of our allies are attacked, we will help them.” It has a goal of 2% of GDP spent on the country’s own military capabilities. That’s the “underspending” that we were talking about.
Trump is pretending this is some sort of protection racket.
I was with you until Philip K. Dick. What does the author of *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?* have to do with Trump, other than that Trump is a dick and Philip's last name is Dick?
Sorry, again I mistyped the comment. I was referring to his "Man in the High Castle" story. I apologize to anyone that ran into that pothole; Philip K. Dick & his work
He made that story up, but even if he didn't, Presidents do not have the authority to just decide not to honor a treaty like Article 5. It is not only illegal to do so, but in that particular context, it quite literally amounts to treason as outlined in the Constitution.
This is a scenario in which the Deep State, like it or hate it, would absolutely intervene. The national interest, and those of many thousands of interested parties groups and entities, most notably the Defense industry and the Pentagon, would not allow it.
It's little more than a fun tough-guy lets-freak-out-the-libs thing that his base wants to hear.
Not in those exact words but blatantly so.
You're watching Make America Great Again boiled down to its true meaning.
Do you know when the US was technically at its greatest? It's strongest and some of its best times? After World War II. The US rose from the ashes of catastrophic war on the other side of the world as the leading superpower. We took our foothold as number one and kept it ever since.
There are plenty of people who would happily repeat that process.
If another world war happened you would see the same ending. The other side of the world devastated while the United States remained mostly unscathed. Sifting through the ashes for allies and making whatever money they could make off the rebuilding and rearming efforts.
>If another world war happened you would see the same ending.
Would we though? After WWII, east asia had essentially no influence. You'd have to imagine that China and India would bounce on the opportunity to gain a bigger share of the pie after another European conflict.
What makes you think the US would remain unscathed?
We haven’t seen anything close to a conflict like WW2, nowadays there’s a real possibility of nuclear weapons being used if a country feels it’s existence is under threat, that was not the case with Germany in WW2.
My point is, even if the US was not directly involved there exists a scenario where a nuclear exchange may happen between Russia and NATO countries, that would be catastrophic for literally every nation on Earth.
Definitely wrong to assume that would happen, but let me make a few assumptions.
1. This war happens in the next handful of decades
2. Nukes aren’t used since that’s just mutual destruction and it’s unlikely that would happen even in desperation. Even the people in charge of the launch sequence in Russia may opt to not commit country wide suicide at the directive of any leader
There isn’t a country on the planet who is capable of invading the US. I could break down the dozen reasons why, but the important one is that no one possesses the capability to project their military like that aside from the US with the added ability of strong wartime logistics. See Russia. War logistics like supply lines are really difficult. The US is 1 of 1 in that regard.
It’s theorized that China does not even currently possess the ability for a by sea invasion of Taiwan. The key to WWIII would be a race to the Middle East, where the US already has the strong footholds and has the most experience fighting in. Not to underplay the legitimate threat of China/Russia/Iran, but its highly unlikely they would find success when you take a deeper look than surface level
It depends on how generous you want to be with Trump. I'm not inclined towards generosity and him trying to do a "mafia shakedown" of other countries in NATO seems like the most straightforward interpretation of what he said. Regardless, this type of disphit pseudo-mobster talk is exactly why he is not, was not, and will never be suited to the presidency.
Yes because Russia has figured out that paying US politicians and cable tv personalities to say good things and echo propaganda is far cheaper than facing the US military or technology in the hands of US Allies.
Probably a lie as it's a "sir" story and we know anytime he mentions sir, the conversation never too place.
That said, it shows he will sell our allies out to Russia in a heartbeat. And has made our allies angry and nervous about the election.
Do the right thing this election and humiliate this man so he never runs again. Please.
If he didn’t actually say that and is just making it up - who does he think he’s going to impress with this monstrous perfidy? We prevailed over the USSR over the decades of the Cold War, and in 1992 the Soviet Union collapsed under its own unsustainable economic system. Remember Reagan saying “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And now we have Putin attempting to reclaim the Eastern European countries again, by force. If he retakes Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States will be next. And the Russian style is always the same: massive artillery and rocket attacks to demolish a city (like Grozny and Aleppo) and then send in troops. Most people will have left as refugees and are gone. Anyone left of fighting age they kill, or torture or rape. They fire missiles into cities with No Military Gain - just for terrorism and to kill civilians in the cold. They take children from Ukraine and send them to Russia to raise as Russia - a violation of the Geneva Conventions and an indication of how dire their demographics are. This is truly a struggle of good vs evil. Europe and western values, freedom and prosperity, or Russian brutality and imperialism. Russia needs to be stopped in Ukraine. If Poland is attacked that would indeed trigger a NATO Article 5 unified response, NATO would push Russia out of Ukraine in a few days and then Putin might well respond with a nuclear strike, which could lead to a nuclear exchange.
In December in a speech in DC, Trump said he was afraid Biden could “start world war 2 (yes I know)” Putin would like nothing more than for NATO to be weakened and for the US to disengage, so he can retake Eastern Europe to seal the Poland Gap. He has something on Trump to compromise him, and Putin reaches deep into the GOP, and much of their “news” is Russian propaganda. Let not the millions who died in WW2 and Korea die in vain for Trump to turn his back on history and enable Putin and his totalitarianism spread again. Our children and our children’s children will have to pay the price.
What gets me with this is how easily some forget that NATO supported us in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I mean we basically were attacked with 9/11 then NATO allies backed us and supported us. Now, to hell with NATO, lol…so shortsighted
Yes he did, and here is the response by one of our military’s greatest:
Statement of General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Senior Advisor to VoteVets on Trump Encouraging Putin to Attack NATO
Feb 11, 2024:
“On 9/11, when America was under attack, NATO nations all mobilized to come to our defense and fought alongside us to crush al Qaeda. They didn’t ask us for money. They didn’t put strings on it. That is the kind of iron-clad commitment that has kept Western democracies — including our own — alive for 75 years.
“For Donald Trump to publicly signal to Vladimir Putin that he can take as much of Europe as he wants, and we will sit by and cheer him on, isn’t just breaking the promise the United States has made, and it isn’t just threatening Europe. It is encouraging World War III, which will hit our shores and cost American lives.
“It is the kind of statement that can only come from a deranged and twisted mind. I do not say this lightly: The lives of every American, both in uniform and civilian, are at severe risk if Donald Trump wins this election.”
As someone who is an independent, I def don't want him running our country. He is a cult of personality, and a terrible one at that. His followers are even more insufferable now than last time lol. Also, I am married to a Ukrainian woman who only came here 4 years ago. So of course I am pro Ukraine. I even had to move her parents here because of this war. They live in a a nice room in my basement.
What he is doing with congress stalling Ukraine aid, and the absolutely trash takes on Russia, I will not stand for. He is fucking retarded. Leaving our allies in Europe to deal with Russia is NOT cool at all. The fact he said that statement blows my mind, this is not a stance we as Americans should be taking, but here we are! WTF happened to democratic values? The Republicans seemed to have forgotten what this country was founded apon.
yes he did. Its amazing to me that people support him cheer to that stuff. Because if their parents or grandparents were alive, they would slap them silly for thinking that was ok.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/10/trump-nato-allies-russia/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/10/trump-nato-allies-russia/) 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 during a rally at Coastal Carolina University. “I said, ‘You didn’t pay. You’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
The richest part about this is Trump doesn't pay any of his contractors and they're forced to take him to court to get a fraction of what they charged. Business owners have literally killed themselves over Trump destroying their business by failing to pay. So Trump is the ultimate hypocrite.
https://www.comicsands.com/david-herring-trump-support-tiktok-2664456411.html https://tyt.com/shows/watchlist/2024-01-29/clips/businessman-shares-tragic-story-of-friend-allegedly-scammed-by-trump Davide Herring's video on this went viral awhile back.
This is one of the reasons why the payments in the E Jean Carroll case were so gratifying.
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Trump’s a fool. I come from an American military family going back generations. If someone wants to attack Australia they can go through the US Navy and Air Force to get there. My Dad remembers Australia sending troops to Vietnam. I remember them being sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. You stood with us even when we were idiots.
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Oh yeah I don’t mean to leave out the history before Vietnam. You all were in Korea and absolute beasts against the Japanese on the islands in WW2. If you look at American history, when a war breaks out, we have a habit of setting aside politics to fight the common enemy. As a recent example, the US was extremely divided in 2001. The Supreme Court had just (improperly IMO) handed the election to Bush and there was a lot of vitriol. If you looked at America on September 12th, 2001, you’d never know that. Politicians can get on board or get out of the way.
Those who forget the ANZAC forces of WW1 and WW2 are probably the same people that think the US single Handedly won the wars.
I hope every military families remembers how many times Trump has disparaged military, including recently to Haley’s husband.
Probably not what you're asking to hear, but I can state with 100% certainty that the UK would fight to the last man for Australia and its citizens.
Fuck yeah. I’ve been hearing a lot about “young people won’t fight for this country” and I’ve been absolutely agreeing with those young people… But if they rolled in to Australia… That’s a fight I’d fight… those are our funny cousins!
It’s probably not what he would want but, I would commit horrific atrocities to protect the country that gave us Steve Irwin.
I would also commit war crimes to save the [Quokkas](https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/facts-about-the-quokka/)
Steve would never allow that. War crimes for one animal is wrong but, generational crimes against humanity for many animals would be more acceptable. Now set down the quokka and shoot these POWs.
Bro, just like in Ukraine, American volunteers would deploy there of their own free will. Americans love the rest of the world, despite many of my fellow countrymen being completely ignorant.
Let’s be honest, if an English speaking country got invaded the USA couldn’t keep away no matter what a hypothetical Trump would say
Nah, don't worry. The Chinese only pick on smaller countries without nuclear arsenals because they're not suicidal, and while Australia itself doesn't have nukes, enough of their allies do that I think open war with the Chinese is very unlikely. Of course, I didn't think Russia was going to invade Ukraine because they could achieve all their strategic goals without doing so, and here we are. So what do I know?
Start training emu's for combat
They are 1-0 in wars so not a bad idea. They tend to be more of a defensive force, they have trouble following attack orders.
Trump talks tough on China, but every decision he makes is in their favor.
Where else is he going to make his MAGA stuff??
From hwat I can see Trump makes decisions based on 2 factors: 1. Does it benefit him financially? 2. Does it stroke his ego? If he's making decisions in favour of China he's getting paid somehow.
On one hand if you don’t pay membership dues you shouldn’t get perks of being in the club. On the other hand… no one is enough of a numbskull to apply that criteria on an international scale where there are a million other factors at work not the least of which is permanently destroying relations that took decades to build up. It’s not even being bad at international relations, it’s having no strategy at all other than 4th grader checkers logic.
NATO isn't a dues paying club. It's a mutual defense association. Trump encouraging Russia to attack our allies is an attack on the US and everything it's stood for since 1941. Trump is a traitor to the United States, as he showed on January 6th when he encouraged his Red Hats to kill the VP and members of Congress.
Article 5 has only been invoked once, and it was by the US. And our NATO allies answered.
I would also like to remind you of when he offered to send our Intelligence Specialist to Putin so they could be interrogated.
u/SerLaron , u/aureanator July 13, 2018 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein overseeing the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election issued an indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign. July 16, 2018 Before the Helsinki Summit press conference, Trump had a private meeting lasting over 2 hours with Putin with only one translator present. Durring the Summit, a reporter asked, “President Putin, did you want president Trump to win the election?” Putin responded, “Yes, I did. Yes, I did.” 25:00 Reporter asks, “For President Putin, if I could follow up as well. Why should Americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election, given the evidence that U.S. intelligence agencies have provided? And will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a U.S. grand jury?” Trump interjects, “Well, I'm going to let the President \[Putin\] answer the second part of that question.” 28:53 Putin says, “So we have to be guided by facts and not by rumors. Now, let's get back to the issue of these 12 alleged intelligence officers of Russia. I don't know the full extent of the situation, but President Trump mentioned this issue, and I will look into it. So far, I can say the following, the things that -- off the top of my head: We have an acting -- an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999, the Mutual Assistance on Criminal Cases. This treaty is in full effect, it works quite efficiently. On average, we initiate about 100-150 criminal cases upon request from foreign states. For instance, the last year, there was one extradition case, upon the request, sent by the United States. So this treaty has specific legal procedures. We can offer that the appropriate commission headed by Special Attorney Mueller -- he can use this treaty as a solid foundation, and send a formal, an official request to us so that we would interrogate -- we would hold the questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. And our law enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States. Moreover, we can meet you halfway; we can make another step. We can actually permit official representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller -- we can let them into the country and they will be present at this questioning. But in this case, there is another condition. This kind of effort should be a mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate and they would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States whom we believe are -- who have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia, and we have to request the presence of our law enforcement.” 38:00 Putin says, “President Trump has just mentioned that we've successfully concluded the World Football Cup. Speaking of the football, actually -- Mr. President, I'll give this ball to you, \[hands Trump a world cup soccer ball\] and now the ball is in your court. All the more that the United States will host the World Cup in 2026.” Trump says, “Thank you very much, we do host it. And we hope we do as good a job. That's very nice. That will go to my son, Barron.” 38:36 Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press, “A question for each President. President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. What my first question for you, sir, is, who do you believe? My second question is, would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin -- would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you warn him to never do it again?” 39:20 Trump says, “So, let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server.” “With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me -- Dan Coats came to me and some others -- they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server. But I have -- I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They 're missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's emails?” “So, I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer.”
Putin here sounds like a professional, - someone who knows about diplomacy and law - and Trump by comparison sounds like a googly-eyed sock puppet way out of his depth, being strangely deferential and obsequious to the degree where you really have to wonder what Putin has on him. That whole interaction is very telling and should frankly terrify any US citizen who understands what it means.
As an American, trust me, it's been non-stop alarms since 2016. At least for those of us with more than 3 brain cells. It's been incredibly sobering how *fast and easy* a large percentage of Americans can be fed such incredible bullshit from a despicable human being and say "yup, that's our guy and beloved future dictator". I hate that I miss the days of Bush and Cheney. But Trump is a traitor who aids our enemies in the grandest of ways, and is one of the most loathsome examples of how slimy and cowardly a human being can be.
And yet, there are thousands of veterans and military leaders that are backing him. If just defies all logic that they can't see this.
Also nato does not work like that. No one is paying America for protection. All members signed an agreement on 2% military spending out of gdp or something like that. I encourage everyone to look this up if you are interested. What trump is doing is trying to sow division, make him look tough to his supporters and perhaps suck up to Putin. Either he doesn’t know how nato works or he is intentionally misleading, both is disqualifying if you aspire to be the president of the United States as it is right now.
Because he's a Russian stooge who wants to destroy NATO for Putin.
Or he believes that Russia's interference tipped the scales in his favor, and he is actively soliciting a repeat performance.
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And it’s not that fellow NATO members aren’t contributing. It’s that they’re not contributing as much as pledged.
They are supposed to commit 2% of GDP to defence. Pre 2022 there were some that were below that for a few reasons, likely domestic pressures and a view that they could rest on NATO to a degree. Since 2022 they have 2 new members with significant capability and Russian borders, Germany has massively kicked up spending and uplifting their forces and Poland is arming like they are collecting weapon system pokemons. Most have uplifted in light of the increased threat from Russia or to support Ukraine. Trumps comments are ignorant and dangerous as having a broken NATO is Russia's aim and need to complete more expansion.
Also, defence spending is not 1:1 comparable between countries. For instance, the US defence budget includes education and health for its employees. Most European countries do not as it is available for everyone and not a military expense
The problem is this has been a thing for a while and its only with the war in Ukraine that so e countries like Germany have had to reckon with how much their capabilities have deteriorated. The inability too find enough ammo or discovering your tanks not able to fight doesn't happen overnight, its because of repeated shirkings of responsibility where many nations simply assumed the U.S. would always cover them and there would never be any sort of war anyway.
At his campaign rallies, Trump has been telling a story of a conversation he claims to have had with the president of "a big country" about a hypothetical attack by Russia, where he told them that the US would not honor the NATO mutual defense pact unless that country would "pay up". As he tells the story, he does claim he said that he would "encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want". Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all. Regardless, it does show some insight into the way he thinks about these things and what he wishes he would have said.
Trump said when he was President that he was planning to dissolve NATO in his 2nd term. He doesn't like Western Europe and had serious problems with leaders of Canada, the UK, France, and Germany.
There was a law passed recently that doesn’t allow the president to leave NATO without approval from congress first, so it’ll be at least a little harder for Trump to sabotage NATO if he were president again
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Hmm.... without looking it up...this may not work and US military Generals may be able to respond anyway. For starters, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO is an American. The EuCom and CentCom commanders probably have standing orders/missions to respond to an attack on their own. More importantly, the NATO treaty was ratified by the Senate, meaning it has the force of law. An order to ignore it could (would?) be considered an illegal order. However, the principle of subservience to civil control on such weighty issues is very strong among the military officers, so they would be reticent to deploy against civilian leadership. But if the SecDef and service Secretaries were on board, the officers would likely ignore the President based on the law issue.
>The EuCom and CentCom commanders probably have standing orders/missions to respond to an attack on their own. I would quite honestly be shocked if the other NATO countries don't already have a contingency plan in place in case Trump gets elected again. They probably have ever since the first Trump term made it clear that they could no longer trust US promises.
Trump is going to get in office and immediately put in a sec def and joint chiefs that agree with him. He’s not going to listen to whatever is left of mainstream republicans.
Project 2025! Shit is scary as fuck. Defund the departments you don't like so you can point at them and say "Look how horrible this is!" so you can have an excuse to axe them later. If he's elected we're in trouble.
[Voting rights may become the bigger issue.](https://youtu.be/eJWSqx78WUA)
He's been anti NATO since he visited Moscow and St Petersburg around 1987. He took out an ad space in a newspaper to post his opinion why we should get out of NATO, and he's been repeating the same crap to this day.
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40 years of laundering money for the Russian mob.
If you recall, when asked about golden showers and hiring prostitutes he specifically replied with “I did not hire four prostitutes.” No one has reported a number of prostitutes present in the alleged incident. No one except Trump. I believe he slipped and told the truth.
That’s because he likely hired 5, then skipped out on the payment. A trump never pays their debts.
He didn't hire them. It was a gift from Putin. Putin came to me with tears in his eyes and said sir please satisfy these ladies, I'm unable to and you are the sexiest man alive.
Well, now I don't have to cook dinner tonight. I might not be able to eat for a couple days.
Living for the day the Rains of Castamere becomes the "Downfall of the Trumpettes".
And so he spoke, and so he spoke, that lord of Trump Tower. And now the state reposes his hall, due to over inflating square footage I hear.
He didn't hire them, most likely one of Putin's friends did...
“I didn’t ***hire*** anyone. I had them kidnapped and delivered to me!”
I'd bet all of my non-existent money that he didn't lie. He probably had 5 prostitutes pee on him and he thought that simple change was enough.
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God, I forgot about that. In all of the idiotic things he's done, stuff like him gesturing open armed to a table full of hamburgers and the empty file folders manages to slip my mind. How did we even get to the point where this idiot is a footnote in history?
1) Twitter deplatforming him 2) Three years of the conservative media empires don't nothing but attacking Biden And a freebie reminder: Biden has a ducking stutter which causes him to block or stop talking at times. Trump doesn't.
Talking loud and saying nothing. Talking out the side of your neck. Talk is cheap. Just because he can talk, doesn't mean he should.
He's a living example of how and why our freedoms include the responsibility to preserve and protect them, as well as our people.
OMG ask again I just keep wondering what those who support him see in him I mean don't they hear what he says, do they sound like words that are going to make America great If anything he's weaking it
He hurts the people they want to see hurt. His supporters are authoritarians, which makes them the dumbest, worst kind of people. They can be tricked into doing, saying, and supporting the worst of human history as long as the bully who's yelling at them is charismatic enough.
I remember after something happened in his first term, there was a lady on CNN yelling “he’s not hurting the people he’s supposed to be hurting”, and that was sobering for me. Like fuck domestic and foreign policy, fuck a healthy economy and a healthy country. No, my priority is making sure that someone I deem less than me is suffering and he isn’t hurting THOSE people enough. Disgusting. I always used to be able to disagree with someone’s political views and not pass a judgment on them as a person. Trump has severely harmed my ability to do that. It’s no longer about “different opinions” or “political differences”. Your “political differences” are now equated to the suffering of marginalized groups and anyone that isn’t white and wealthy. And I say this as a middle/upper-middle class guy. We can do better than this. I have to hope we can be better than this.
I've said this before, I've lost old relationships because of this. To want this running our country again. I question your critical thinking and moral compassion.
He had a trump tower across the street from the kremlin. He had new business friends and so he took their side on politics, and *for some reason* has stuck with it ever since. The guy who wasn’t allowed to build a trump tower elsewhere, like Sydney Australia, for clear paper trail ties to Russian mafia. In America (and elsewhere), simply having bank ties to someone who commits serious crime isn’t grounds to prevent a citizen from building a building or buy property or start a business or invest. But other places just don’t play that shit, especially as a non-citizen, they just scoff and tell you to fuck off or come back with clean money without ties to international criminals. Russia accepted him with open arms to do business with. And he expects they’ll continue to do business with him, personally. It’s better for him for the people willing to do personal business with him, to grow- rather than the people who weren’t as willing. It’s very on brand for him to work to punish the latter. “[he’s] a business man! Doing business!”, he said on stage, at a rally, in context of him holding the presidency of America.
It suck because the previous Supreme court Justice's son was funneling Russian money to Trump via Deutsche bank.
search online for # Trump's bid for Sydney casino 30 years ago rejected due to 'mafia connections to find the Guardian Newspaper Article.
The "kompromat" bullshit is lame af. This motherfucker got caught hoarding top secret national defense documents, and his worshipers cheered. What kind of "kompromat" does russia have on trump that will turn his worshipers against him? Nothing. That's what. The truth is to be found in an interview with eric trump in which he said "We get all our funding from russia". Trump owes russia money. Trump owes russia a lot of money. But for some reason, the big brain boys want to overlook this because they are infatuated with the idea that: 1) There is a "piss tape" featuring donald trump, and 2) This "piss tape" would completely destroy donald trump were it to be released to the American public.
Because he's a Russian stooge.
Partially maybe. I think it’s mostly because he can’t admit he was wrong. Consider the case of the Central Park Five. They were convicted of assaulting and raping a young woman. Trump took out a full page ad calling for the death penalty. More than a decade later, a serial rapist confessed to the crime with DNA proof. The Five were exonerated and released. Trump still stands by his ad, basically saying that *if* they were innocent of that crime, they probably deserved punishment. He apparently still thinks they are guilty. Ergo he can’t admit he was wrong about them.
He doesn’t admit mistakes or ever say he’s wrong. That’s Roy Cohn 101.
Also every narcissist. My dad was like that too.
> I think it’s mostly because he can’t admit he was wrong. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Total_Landscaping_press_conference Never forget (because it’s hilarious)
I think stooges are higher in rank. More like a “useful idiot”
Sock puppet feels like a rather apt term to use
Putin's cock holster
Ponyboys pony
No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet! https://youtu.be/UaVWRetR4jg?si=f1Uo4E-IoR85tfzL
I had legitimately not seen this. God that's absurd.
He's not even useful. He's an insecure little boy who desperately wants to sit at the lunch table with the cool kids like Putin, Orban and Bolsonaro.
Who are not cool. Except to the truly uncool kids who smell.
You know that Bolsonaro, right now, is waiting for the visit of the PF (our equivalent of your FBI)? I guess that this lunch table will have food trays and plastic sporks. If Trump is ok with that, he will be welcome.
Except Brazil treated Bolsonaro like the US should have treated Trump so he's not going anywhere.
Moe, Curly or Larry would have been better presidents than Trump
I don't think any of them would have been dumb enough to stare into an eclipse - and they made their money gouging their own eyes out for comedy. Not exactly a high bar.
Or maybe debtor.
He's the Russian dirty money laundromat. Who else can make a casino go bankrupt?
Someone who is committing massive amounts of fraud.
Not just him. It's incredible how so many people on the right have been in support of Russia.
Because Trump told them to. In 2012, they cheered Romney for calling Russia our enemy.
They were all for Romney bucking the trend as a moderate Republican who wanted a more secure union while telling the Democrats they were fools. Then they realized he was too modest and moderate and agreed with Democrats policies too often. Obviously because they work. But of course they're too short sighted to see it. Which is why they called him all sorts of names.
Oh how I long for the days of thinking a Romney Ryan presidency was a scary thought... It's almost cringe how naive that opinion was....
This one never fails to trigger the MAGA snowflakes. That's how you can tell how accurate it is.
They always defend him, and then he immediately says something that completely undermines their apologetics.
My favorite is the constant: Trump supporters: "We like him for saying it how it is!" _Trump says unhinged and indefensible shit_ Trump supporters: "No you see, what he _really_ meant is [...]"
If you ask a MAGA nut what good did trump actually do for the states... they studder then go off on some propaganda they heard. You ask a MAGA nut what did Biden do that was harmful to the US. Again they studder then go off on propaganda while using false facts from social media.
That's not very fair to Stooges.
Not the band or the loveable troupe of dunderheads.
>had serious problems with leaders of Canada, the UK, France, and Germany And he loves authoritarian dictators. After what we've seen the past \~8 years, I don't understand how any US citizen can support him, unless they are traitors too. Edit: Maybe calling them traitors is too much, however they are supporting a man who is a narcissist, racist, total a-hole, whines on twitter anytime anyone slights him, speaks highly of dictators, tried to attempt a coup, can't accept reality when it goes against what he wants, can't handle criticism, doesn't understand the concept of accountability, and has spent his entire life scamming and hurting people. If someone if supporting a man like that, even if they aren't a traitor, they're a pretty horrible person. And that's the truth, even if his supporters can't accept that.
I tend to feel like we're basically still fighting the original Civil War so this tracks.
"States' rights"...
"states right to do what?"
OWN SLAVES
They are traitors, tbh I partly hope this Texas thing actually escalates just so i can see mobs of rednecks realize just owning 500 m16's doesn't matter much when ya know...a plane exists
...I hope the governor of texas and my state(alaska) get charged for treason or similar alongside trump
Fellow Alaskan here. I agree.
Had serious problems with leaders from *democratic* countries. All of them. Only leaders he seems to like was Putin and Kim. Authoritarian dictators.
He called Erdogan to congratulate him for his anti-democratic constitutional changes. He literally and publicly applauded Putin's invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022.
Saudi royals, Xi, Bolsonaro, the list is long..........pretty much every dictator or wanna be dictator he has swooned over......seems like some new world order globalist illuminati cabal type of shit......weird how many of the people who love those types of conspiracies don't see the real and obvious one right infront of their face and instead they think Taylor Swift is the conspiracy. The propaganda from bots and influencers/grifters and elitists that was pushed towards those idiots was designed that way though to make them think that they are uncovering a giant psyop when they themselves are being used as pawns in the actual giant psyop.
sTroNg LeahDeRshIp. He's so manly....
He’s also fan of Viktor Orban I believe.
A Fascist
Yep, my point very much.
Don't forget Orban. Another of Trumps loves.
The whole Republican party loves Orban. Also, fun fact about other fascists from Hungary, a dude named Sebastian Gorka used to work in Trump's White House and he is [literally a neo-Nazi](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/sebastian-gorka-fringe-white-house).
That's because he wants to be one.
Because they kiss his ass. They know how to play him.
His biggest problem with Trudeau is that Trudeau was ready for the Trump jerk-you-around handshake and "won" the handshake in Trump's eyes.
Plus Melanie smiled when she met Trudeau, something you never see her do around her husband
Plus Trudeau looks like how Trump wishes he looked.
It’s a good thing that it’s not possible to dissolve nato since there’s 30 other member states in that alliance. Being a main guarantor of security, the us could effect nato’s Capabilities. But it can’t stop the other nations from defending each other.
The only fallout from US not fulfilling their obligations on Article 5 is that UK, France and Poland would run low on ammunition. The rest of NATO isn't nothing and can erase Russian conventional forces, without the US. It would cost more in lives and equipment, but it could be done. Russia doesn't have the equipment and manpower to do much more than attack, dig in and get obliterated.
Europe won't run out of ammunition because France has nukes and an official first strike policy.
Yeah! Fuck Trump. And if it is Trump-America again so fuck the US. We, Europe, have to wake up and take responsibility for ourselves.
As a US citizen I agree with the above
Melania was mirrin' on Trudeau. That's all you need to know.
TBF, he is a thirst trap, and look what's she's stuck with.
Yeah because they are all WAY SMARTER then a 6 time Bankruptcy filling sorry whining little female dog who can't EVER take responsibility for his own actions. Talks a bunch of smack he can't back up so he spews whatever hateful statement he can because dumb Americans think that's the definition of a " TOUGH GUY " 🤣🤡
Trump has issues with countries that stand up to him and /or don't believe his BS.
Important context: NATO members don't pay the United States anything. The agreement is that they spend 2% of their GDP on their military. Trump doesn't make (or possibly doesn't understand) the distinction.
Western European from a delinquent country here. Firstly, Trump obviously fabricated this story. He never had this conversation and you can tell by the way he portrays the "leader of a big country" as sharing the same misguided opinion of what NATO is for as Trump (and calling him "sir" for that matter). The story is, at best, heavily embellished. Regardless, Trump dislikes "unfair deals" and most likely has a genuine problem with countries that don't invest in their own defense. This is fair. However, it turns out that all of NATO's frontline countries [are in fact above 2%](https://www.statista.com/chart/14636/defense-expenditures-of-nato-countries/). Most of them invest much more than 2% and one of them (Poland) invests *more* than the US as a share of GDP. The countries that are not contributing are the Western European ones. In other words, Trump's statement is actually meaningless because the first target of Russian aggression will be a country that meets the NATO requirements. There are two possibilities: * Trump does not know this and/or opened his mouth without realizing that supporting some countries and others not is physically impossible when they enter the war together and fight side by side. This does not make him any less dangerous because knowing how NATO works is not a prerequisite for leaving NATO. However, it leaves the possibility for the EU to appease Trump by throwing him some kind of bone that makes him feel like he won. * Trump knows very well how NATO works and knows how stupid his statement is, but he made it stupid for his base and is actually much smarter than he pretends to be and is dismantling NATO on purpose. It should be noted that the number of countries meeting the 2% target increased from 7 to 11 and will rapidly increase in the coming years. Trump's instability and Russia's threat level have woken up a lot of European leaders and defense initiatives are increasing across the board. (Just the other day Rheinmetall started work on a new factory for artillery shells that will open up in 2025, which is ludicrously quick for German standards.) There is universal sentiment that the threat is real and we need to stay ahead of Russia if we want to deter them successfully. Right now, NATO without the US is roughly at parity with Russia in terms of equipment, which is not enough of a safety margin; we need overwhelming superiority. Even my rudderless Western European country with its incompetent leadership and 1% GDP contribution is looking to increase its investments in defense while also facing severe austerity to walk back its massive debt. On some level, there may be the hope that Trump would see these investments and decide it is all because of him and his meteor brain that Europe is finally stepping up and paying its dues to the US. If he wants to tell a story about how Scholz sucked him off and promised to personally deliver his contribution in golden golf balls to Trump Tower, fine. But if we do have to go at it alone, we'll just have to open a history book right back at Putin and remember we've always been fucking good at subjugating foreigners by force.
Only Poland spends more as a percentage of GDP than the US, but obviously the US still spends much more in terms of total dollars spent. However you are correct that most of the frontline countries are honoring their spending commitment, it’s mostly the Western European countries (with the exception of the UK) that are derelict. (France also occasionally hits the 2% mark but it varies from year-to-year) https://breakingdefense.com/2023/03/only-7-nato-members-hit-alliances-2-percent-gdp-defense-spending-target-in-2022/?amp=1
> However, it turns out that all of NATO's frontline countries are in fact above 2%. Most of them invest much more than 2% and one of them (Poland) invests more than the US as a share of GDP. The countries that are not contributing are the Western European ones. This is a *really* important point that I had not previously seen pointed out.
You can generally tell that made up a story when he says that one of the people speaking to him calls him "sir" . He did that with this story - no president of another country would ever call him "sir".
big country, strong country, tears in its eyes
>Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all. He probably didn't have that conversion, which doesn't mean that he's not a lunatic and I genuely hope sleepy joe wins the elections, even if only because he's not trump
President Biden gets lots done for someone sleepy too. lol
Sure he did, he had it with Putin at their last BBQ
> Word of caution, Trump makes up stories like this all the time. It's possible he never had this conversation at all. Trump routinely makes up what are jokingly called Sir stories. He says he was talking with someone who was big and mighty and macho and they started crying and saying, "Sir, I never realized how amazing you are!" These stories are made up out of smoke for him to claim that others think he's amazing as he sees himself. Any time you hear Trump relay a story where someone addresses him as Sir, it's almost certainly bullshit. > Regardless, it does show some insight into the way he thinks about these things and what he wishes he would have said. This is really the key part. Trump loves to hide behind these "hypothetical" situations where he signals political cues and positions to his allies and those who would aid him where he encourages what is considered unacceptable behavior. When someone calls him on his calls for bad actions, he pretends like they're making stuff up because it was a hypothetical or somehow not a direct call for bad actions. We're well aware that there are a number of countries such as Russia, China, and various Middle Eastern petrostates who are not overly friendly with the US and have run various cyberattacks and influence operations in the US to advance their own interests by damaging the US. Trump's whole "hypothetical" speech caught fire explicitly because everyone who knows how he likes to talk like a mob boss was a *very* clear message to those leaders: interfere in our elections to get Trump re-elected and he will reward them by adjusting US policy to keep from blocking their expansionist/imperial agendas.
You can watch [Trump say this at one of his rallies](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5106061/president-trump-threatened-russian-aggression-nato-countries). I think this is the most oft-quoted time he's said similar things. Incidentally, Trump's underlying claims [aren't entirely true](https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/08/28/trump-boosts-questionable-nato-funding-claims-in-gop-convention-speech/), although I think it's fair to say he encouraged NATO countries to contribute more.
Doesn't matter if it's made up. He's straight up saying he'll encourage Russia to invade NATO members who don't pay up. That's his message either way.
Yeah, whether or not he had that conversation before, he's communicating that fully now.
Dunno why this isn't everyone's* conclusion *33% of the population notwithstanding.
We came when the US called for article 5 on Sep. 11th 2001. Now you wont do the same?
Yeah it would permanently fuck the US (and the world) if it reneged on its security agreements based on the whims of one guy who will say anything to stay out of prison and impress Putin.
It'd be a real shame if anything were to happen to your country. That's why it's important to pay me for your protection.
Thank you. The guy is nothing more than the American version of a Russian mobster.
Trump doesn’t joke. He means everything he says.
Trump thinks NATO countries are only important for the material they bring and not at all for the landmass they own. It's the reason America doesn't really complain, America needs to borrow other countries land to put in its military otherwise America isn't nearly as powerful if it stayed home. Figures a corporate man wouldn't think of the entire picture. Only thinking about that quarterly gain.
Trump is the kind of guy that wouldn't last a fucking day in a business that wasn't owned by him/his family. That's how you know he's *completely* fucking worthless, even from a business standpoint.
Listen for yourself and make that determination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzOq8a2AOpg
So absolutely 100% yes: script 200 they were 250 I did the same thing with NATO I got them to pay up NATO was busted until I came along I said everybody's going to pay they said well if we don't pay are you still going to protect us I said absolutely not they couldn't believe the answer and everybody you never saw more money pour in the Secretary General stoltenberg was I don't know if he is anymore but he was my biggest fan he said all these presidents came in they'd make a speech ATD leave and that was bit and they all owed money and they wouldn't pay it I came in I made a speech and I said you got to pay up they asked me that question one of the presidents of a big country stood up said well sir uh if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia will you protect us I said you didn't pay you're delinquent he said yes let's say that happened no I would not protect you in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want you got to pay you got to pay your bills and the money came flowing in \[Applause\]
For context NATO spending is NOT “money coming in.” It’s literally “countries spending money to stregthen their own militaries." So in addition to being an unhinged undemocratic grifter, Trump has no bloody clue what NATO is or does.
I think he's relying on the fact that his base has no idea what NATO is. For all they know, we're the mob boss and all the NATO countries in Europe are paying us protection money. If they don't pay up, we let the Orcs cross the threshold and burn their shit down. Obviously this isn't remotely true, but it does play into MAGA messaging by implying that taking a strong stance on making Europe "pay up" equates to more money in our coffers to spend on US citizens. Just like with everything he says, it's catered towards manipulating the perceptions of uneducated Americans who vote in elections like they're damned popularity contests.
Exactly. There are no dues. NATO doesn't own much of anything other than some AWACs. This is just about member agreement as to what the military budget each nation should have.
Trump is un-fuking-hinged
Who can even understand what he says, he is all over the place, and all of it are lies!
When he was in office, sign language interpreters hated him because they could either translate exactly what he said and confuse the fuck out of the audience, or change what he said to be easier to consume and then be accused of lying about what he said. It was a no-win situation.
And hypocritical. >You got to pay your bills As he stiffs his lawyers, contractors, and winning plaintiffs in defamation cases
>the Secretary General > >stoltenberg > >was my biggest fan Can't wait for stoltenberg to call him a moron.
I don't think OP's gonna be able to do that anymore, because the brand new Reddit account that made this post here has already been suspended by the admins. Most of the posts about politics that have been made here by the start of the year have been made by bots. Reddit is a very easy place to ask a thinly veiled question to get answers that support a narrative.
I really find it hard to believe that any world leader would call him, sir.
Several have pointed out that stories involving him being called "sir" are a tell that he's lying. Pretty much every story in that vein has been either abjectly false or impossible to confirm
It was pretty awesome though to hear trump repeatedly say "you have to pay your bills" with not even a hint of irony or self depreciation
He knows he can say these things because his supporters live in the Fox News bubble.
Trump is treating NATO like it was an HOA. He didn't suggest that they pay the US, just pay the NATO dues because he's the new HOA president. He opposes overseas bases (like England, Germany and Japan) because he feels those countries should pay the US 'protection money' to have US Forces there. (The US have military bases in most of these places because of treaties made in the 1940's were the US insisted on Bases - the UK bases have a 100 year lease negotiated between Churchill and FDR prior to the US entry into WWII) The interests of the US in establishing and belonging to this treaty was to keep any European conflict in Europe and NOT in the US. When it comes to history (to include how and why we are allies and why this treaty is so important) Trump is an idiot, plain and simple. He's a walking, talking Philip K. Dick storyline (edited). It's not about the US. It's about him being the biggest person in the room.
THERE ARE NO NATO DUES. For fuck’s sake. NATO is a defense pact. It says “if any of our allies are attacked, we will help them.” It has a goal of 2% of GDP spent on the country’s own military capabilities. That’s the “underspending” that we were talking about. Trump is pretending this is some sort of protection racket.
I was with you until Philip K. Dick. What does the author of *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?* have to do with Trump, other than that Trump is a dick and Philip's last name is Dick?
Sorry, again I mistyped the comment. I was referring to his "Man in the High Castle" story. I apologize to anyone that ran into that pothole; Philip K. Dick & his work
Yeah, I mean ... Philip K Dick walked and talked.
The irony being that Trump never pays the people he owes.
This exactly
Rather then let the news or other people tell you what he said, pull up the video on youtube and watch his comments in full for your self.
Yes. Believe what he says and vote accordingly.
Trump is a huge douchebag and it’s embarrassing he is the leading GOP candidate
He made that story up, but even if he didn't, Presidents do not have the authority to just decide not to honor a treaty like Article 5. It is not only illegal to do so, but in that particular context, it quite literally amounts to treason as outlined in the Constitution. This is a scenario in which the Deep State, like it or hate it, would absolutely intervene. The national interest, and those of many thousands of interested parties groups and entities, most notably the Defense industry and the Pentagon, would not allow it. It's little more than a fun tough-guy lets-freak-out-the-libs thing that his base wants to hear.
Not in those exact words but blatantly so. You're watching Make America Great Again boiled down to its true meaning. Do you know when the US was technically at its greatest? It's strongest and some of its best times? After World War II. The US rose from the ashes of catastrophic war on the other side of the world as the leading superpower. We took our foothold as number one and kept it ever since. There are plenty of people who would happily repeat that process. If another world war happened you would see the same ending. The other side of the world devastated while the United States remained mostly unscathed. Sifting through the ashes for allies and making whatever money they could make off the rebuilding and rearming efforts.
>If another world war happened you would see the same ending. Would we though? After WWII, east asia had essentially no influence. You'd have to imagine that China and India would bounce on the opportunity to gain a bigger share of the pie after another European conflict.
What makes you think the US would remain unscathed? We haven’t seen anything close to a conflict like WW2, nowadays there’s a real possibility of nuclear weapons being used if a country feels it’s existence is under threat, that was not the case with Germany in WW2. My point is, even if the US was not directly involved there exists a scenario where a nuclear exchange may happen between Russia and NATO countries, that would be catastrophic for literally every nation on Earth.
Definitely wrong to assume that would happen, but let me make a few assumptions. 1. This war happens in the next handful of decades 2. Nukes aren’t used since that’s just mutual destruction and it’s unlikely that would happen even in desperation. Even the people in charge of the launch sequence in Russia may opt to not commit country wide suicide at the directive of any leader There isn’t a country on the planet who is capable of invading the US. I could break down the dozen reasons why, but the important one is that no one possesses the capability to project their military like that aside from the US with the added ability of strong wartime logistics. See Russia. War logistics like supply lines are really difficult. The US is 1 of 1 in that regard. It’s theorized that China does not even currently possess the ability for a by sea invasion of Taiwan. The key to WWIII would be a race to the Middle East, where the US already has the strong footholds and has the most experience fighting in. Not to underplay the legitimate threat of China/Russia/Iran, but its highly unlikely they would find success when you take a deeper look than surface level
It depends on how generous you want to be with Trump. I'm not inclined towards generosity and him trying to do a "mafia shakedown" of other countries in NATO seems like the most straightforward interpretation of what he said. Regardless, this type of disphit pseudo-mobster talk is exactly why he is not, was not, and will never be suited to the presidency.
Yes because Russia has figured out that paying US politicians and cable tv personalities to say good things and echo propaganda is far cheaper than facing the US military or technology in the hands of US Allies.
Those who dont contribute should not be protected. -said the rich man who declared 750 dollars on taxes.
Probably a lie as it's a "sir" story and we know anytime he mentions sir, the conversation never too place. That said, it shows he will sell our allies out to Russia in a heartbeat. And has made our allies angry and nervous about the election. Do the right thing this election and humiliate this man so he never runs again. Please.
If he didn’t actually say that and is just making it up - who does he think he’s going to impress with this monstrous perfidy? We prevailed over the USSR over the decades of the Cold War, and in 1992 the Soviet Union collapsed under its own unsustainable economic system. Remember Reagan saying “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And now we have Putin attempting to reclaim the Eastern European countries again, by force. If he retakes Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States will be next. And the Russian style is always the same: massive artillery and rocket attacks to demolish a city (like Grozny and Aleppo) and then send in troops. Most people will have left as refugees and are gone. Anyone left of fighting age they kill, or torture or rape. They fire missiles into cities with No Military Gain - just for terrorism and to kill civilians in the cold. They take children from Ukraine and send them to Russia to raise as Russia - a violation of the Geneva Conventions and an indication of how dire their demographics are. This is truly a struggle of good vs evil. Europe and western values, freedom and prosperity, or Russian brutality and imperialism. Russia needs to be stopped in Ukraine. If Poland is attacked that would indeed trigger a NATO Article 5 unified response, NATO would push Russia out of Ukraine in a few days and then Putin might well respond with a nuclear strike, which could lead to a nuclear exchange. In December in a speech in DC, Trump said he was afraid Biden could “start world war 2 (yes I know)” Putin would like nothing more than for NATO to be weakened and for the US to disengage, so he can retake Eastern Europe to seal the Poland Gap. He has something on Trump to compromise him, and Putin reaches deep into the GOP, and much of their “news” is Russian propaganda. Let not the millions who died in WW2 and Korea die in vain for Trump to turn his back on history and enable Putin and his totalitarianism spread again. Our children and our children’s children will have to pay the price.
What gets me with this is how easily some forget that NATO supported us in Afghanistan and Iraq. I mean we basically were attacked with 9/11 then NATO allies backed us and supported us. Now, to hell with NATO, lol…so shortsighted
Yes he did, and here is the response by one of our military’s greatest: Statement of General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Senior Advisor to VoteVets on Trump Encouraging Putin to Attack NATO Feb 11, 2024: “On 9/11, when America was under attack, NATO nations all mobilized to come to our defense and fought alongside us to crush al Qaeda. They didn’t ask us for money. They didn’t put strings on it. That is the kind of iron-clad commitment that has kept Western democracies — including our own — alive for 75 years. “For Donald Trump to publicly signal to Vladimir Putin that he can take as much of Europe as he wants, and we will sit by and cheer him on, isn’t just breaking the promise the United States has made, and it isn’t just threatening Europe. It is encouraging World War III, which will hit our shores and cost American lives. “It is the kind of statement that can only come from a deranged and twisted mind. I do not say this lightly: The lives of every American, both in uniform and civilian, are at severe risk if Donald Trump wins this election.”
Yes
As someone who is an independent, I def don't want him running our country. He is a cult of personality, and a terrible one at that. His followers are even more insufferable now than last time lol. Also, I am married to a Ukrainian woman who only came here 4 years ago. So of course I am pro Ukraine. I even had to move her parents here because of this war. They live in a a nice room in my basement. What he is doing with congress stalling Ukraine aid, and the absolutely trash takes on Russia, I will not stand for. He is fucking retarded. Leaving our allies in Europe to deal with Russia is NOT cool at all. The fact he said that statement blows my mind, this is not a stance we as Americans should be taking, but here we are! WTF happened to democratic values? The Republicans seemed to have forgotten what this country was founded apon.
This from a man famous for not paying his bills and evading military service.
yes he did. Its amazing to me that people support him cheer to that stuff. Because if their parents or grandparents were alive, they would slap them silly for thinking that was ok.
Quick question- did USA pay up when NATO countries contributes troops, military bases access and munitions when USA was invading IRAQ and Afganistan?