[Edited version of an article by Eli Stokels of the LA Times.]
At the NATO news conference, Trump said about shared spending, “They’re going to up it at levels that they’ve never thought of before.” Other leaders, however, denied that they had made any new pledges beyond what they’d agreed to in 2014, under some pressure from President Obama. “No increase in spending,” Italy’s new prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said of his country’s military budget. French President Emmanuel Macron, in his own closing news conference, said NATO members generally had made no new commitments.
The diplomatic confusion Trump caused among NATO allies left them more uncertain than before of the U.S. commitment, and apprehensive about his get-together with Putin. At NATO’s close, he cast himself as a savior, yet it was a crisis of his own making that distracted from an agenda focused on Russia, and anti-terrorism. A day after tweeting, “What good is NATO?” Trump spoke in his most glowing terms ever about the alliance, a pillar of the post-World War II democratic order and one that as a presidential candidate he repeatedly called “obsolete.” “I believe in NATO,” Trump said. “I believe it’s probably the greatest ever done.”
The president’s “misstatements and bluster,” Senator McCain wrote, “are the words of one man. Americans and their Congress still believe in the transatlantic alliance.” He ridiculed Trump’s description of Putin as a competitor, saying, “Putin is our enemy” because he chose to be — by invading Ukraine, annexing Crimea, slaughtering Syrians and attacking U.S. elections and democracies worldwide.
These are my conclusions about what Eli Stokols was writing about the NATO conference!
Trump, as usual, tried to take credit for something that actually did not happen! The increases in spending are still on the same schedule that NATO members agreed to under some pressure by President Obama! Not only was this conference not a success by any means, he left NATO wondering by saying he could pull out any time and he did not need congressional approval to do it!
He attacked Germany and Angela Merkel saying they are pawns of Russia! He attacked England and Theresa May, even saying he thought her political rival would be better at her job! An unprecedented intrusion into a countries politics by an American President! He went on to say he had told her how to do Brexit but she wouldn’t listen! He attacked Europe as a whole by saying that allowing immigration would destroy what used to be great European traditions! You know, all white and all Christian, my words, of course!
Trump is a disruptor, which I admit sometimes can be a good thing, but not in his case! He attacks and insults longtime allies and trade partners. He puts in jeopardy alliances that we need for long-term security. His misguided trade restrictions of our allies, he just threatened England with trade reductions. Even his China policies are a mistake! We have issues with China, trade and otherwise, but what he is doing to them and our allies in his new tariff demands will hurt us, and hurt us bad! His disruptions are guided by only one thing, his desire to show he is in charge on the world stage and you better pay allegiance to the World Emperor or else!
The Love Chronicles 