Criticizing President Donald Trump before his NATO summit in Brussels July 11, only five days before meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the media found more fault with the president. During the campaign, Trump urged NATO allies to pony up their fair share of costs for collective defense, asking allies to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. Slammed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 campaign for abandoning the NATO alliance, the media played along hoping to get Hillary elected. When that backfired Nov. 8, 2016, Democrats and their media friends have been out to get Trump ever since, ripping him no matter what he does. When he completed an historic summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un June 12, the media’s called the event worthless, asking for proof of immediate nuclear disarmament.
Before Trump heads to Brussels and them Helsinki, Democrats can’t wait to criticize Trump, hoping, if nothing else, to persuade enough voters to toss out Republicans in the Midterm elections. Heading to the NATO summit, Trump asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel increase their defense budgets. While the press wants to highlight Trump’s demands, Trump wants more economic help from prosperous European allies, concerned about Russia’s aggression in the former Soviet republics. Instead of backing the president’s attempt to collect more cash for the U.S. treasury, the media acts like Trump’s trying to destroy the NATO alliance. Trump put his rich NATO allies on notice that he expects them to pay a bigger share of the NATO defense budget than prior years.
For that, Trump’s accused of trying to destroy the NATO alliance. When you consider the press ranted-and-raved against the Dec. 24, 2017 tax cut that’s led to today’s 4%-plus growth rate, it makes you wonder who’s working against U.S. interests. “It will . . .become increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries do not share NATO’s collective security burden while American soldiers continue to sacrifice their lives overseas or come home gravely wounded,” Trump wrote to NATO partners. “Belgium has halted the systematic fall in defense spending and takes part in a lot of military operations,” Michel told the Deutsche Welle newspaper. Michel said he was “not very impressed by this type of letter,” making him widely quoted in the anti-Trump press. Trump’s European allies know that the U.S. has always, coming out of WW II, paid the lion’s share of NATO’s defense budget. Now that Europe’s prospering, Trump wants the allies to pony up.
Before Trump lands in Brussels or meets with Putin in Helsinki, the press has written a litany of preemptive attacks, including highlighting how much NATO’s allies oppose the U.S. president. Whether it’s renegotiating faulty trade deals, or trying to get China or Europe to drop tariffs on U.S. products, Trump’s looking out for the U.S. treasury, too often getting the short end of the stick. He promised as a candidate to fix longstanding trade imbalances and to get NATO allies to pay their fair share. For that, the press treated Trump with accusations of undermining NATO and creating global trade wars. Neither China nor Europe wants to own unfair trade practices against the U.S. Trump’s brought them to everyone’s attention, not started any trade war. If there’s an immigration problem at the Mexican border, it’s not Trump’s problem for enforcing existing U.S. border laws.
If you listen to Democrats and the press, you’d believe Trump wreaking havoc on U.S. domestic and foreign policy. If you look at the facts, it’s another story. Heading into Brussels and Helsinki, Trump has renewed clout having recently completed one of the most difficult pieces of global diplomacy in North Korea. No matter how little credit he’s given by Democrats of the press, the world’s safer today from possible nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula. Instead of threatening the U.S. with nuclear war, Kim’s now working on a peace treaty with the U.S. and South Korea. Whatever Trump’s demands for more cash in Europe, it pales in comparison to keeping North Korea from erupting into the next regional or world war. Heading to Brussels and Helsinki, Trump arrives with more stature and clout.
In spite of the U.S. press, Trump marches to Belgium and Helsinki with a real message for NATO allies and Moscow. To NATO, Trump asks traditional U.S. allies to contribute more to their own defense. To Putin, Trump wants Moscow to return to a cooperative partner on the world stage, including dealing with global terrorism and the current Iranian-sponsored proxy wars in the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula. “NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,” Trump said during the last NATO meeting in May. While the press has already slammed Trump for not confronting Putin in Helsinki in Crimea, the president knows what’s appropriate to discuss with Putin. If the U.S. press backed the president, it would give him added influence heading into Brussels and Helsinki. Ripping Trump only makes the U.S. press look weak and partisan.
