LOS ANGELES.–Speaking at a South Carolina campaign rally, former President Donald Trump, 77, irked the NATO alliance saying that if countries didn’t pay their fair share, maybe the United States wouldn’t defend them against Russia. Democrats immediately seized on Trump words, the same thing he said during his four years in office to get NATO countries to pay their fair share to the U.S.-heavy alliance. NATO’s Article 5 says that if one NATO country is attacked, all will defend the country, referring mainly to the Russian Federation. How ironic that NATO foreign ministers worry about Trump’s words when they’re not ponying up to pay for the Ukraine proxy war against the Russian Federation. Article 5 says, like the Three Musketeers, “All for one, and one for all” to underscore the deterrent strength of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. Trump simply repeated old talking points.
At this point, Democrats are groping to attack Trump on any issue after learning in Special Counsel Robert Ur’s 388-page report that President Joe Biden couldn’t recall when he was Vice President or when his son died. All the Democrat spin makers, including Biden’s wife Jill, are busy making excuses for Joe. White House spin doctors are in full damage control continuing the cover-up of Biden’s deteriorating cognitive state, something evident in the 2020 campaign but only getting worse by the day. Democrat political hacks like James Carville or Paul Begala, painfully admitted it doesn’t look good for the president. But Biden’s wife has convenient excuses to cover-up her husband’s diminished capacity due to age-related cognitive decline.
So, when it comes to Trump’s every word, every campaign message is scrutinized to the point White House spin-meisters must find anything to discredit the former president. When it comes to his NATO comments, Trump has changed nothing from his days in the White House. He wants NATO to pay its fair share for the alliance, it’s really that simple. If anyone needs NATO to step up, it’s the United States who finds itself paying the lion’s share of the Ukraine War, something Poland and the Baltic States in particular admit worry them about 71-year-old President Vladimir Putin. Propaganda coming from the Kiev and the White House accuse Putin of trying to recapture the old Soviet Union or Russian Empire. Absolute poppycock, yet it’s used regularly by Biden and Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky to justify the Ukraine War.
NATO has not stepped up to help the U.S. and Ukraine to prosecute the current war with the Kremlin. Yet NATO fears that if Trump becomes president, he would stop supporting the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. How ironic that Stoltenberg rejected any calls to fast-track Ukraine into NATO membership, fearing Russia would actually start attacking NATO members like Poland, Finland and the Baltic States. Stoltenberg could not be more hypocritical, knowing that he opposes Ukraine’s entrance into NATO precisely because it would require collective defense. NATO views Ukraine’s problems its own, not something NATO is willing to subsidize.
Stoltenberg, who had his run-ins with Trump, is as phony as they come, refusing Zelensky’s overtures purely because it would drag NATO into a war with Russia. So, for Stoltenberg, it’s the U.S. and Ukraine’s problem waging war against the Kremlin. Stoltenberg mirrors the Alliance that it wants no part of Biden’s proxy war against the Russian Federation. Nor should they because it’s a reckless, wasteful war that could easily be settled at the peace table if Biden and Zelensky showed any diplomacy. Biden’s recent problems from the Special Counsel’s report explains why diplomacy is not his strong suit, knowing he suffers from age-related cognitive decline. If Stoltenberg showed any consistency, he would lend Ukraine more financial and military support but clearly has no intention of doing so. NATO views the Ukraine War as Washington and Kiev’s problem.
European press outlets like the join the U.S. presidential campaign, discrediting Trump because they don’t like getting pressure to spend a full two percent of GDP on NATO defense. Some in the Alliance spend less than one percent, violating, as Trump points out, their obligation to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. “We cannot flip a coin about our security every four years depending on this or that election, namely the U.S. presidential election,” said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, completely missing the point. Trump simply reminds NATO members to keep working on upping the ante to the two percent GDP goal to the alliance. But when it comes to the Ukraine War, NATO wants no part of Biden’s proxy war against the Kremlin, especially if it means coughing up more cash. Trump reminds the Alliance that everyone must pay their fair share. That’s all.
About the Author
John M. Curtis write politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
