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At NATO, Trump slams Germany as Russian 'captive'

71 Comments
By Jeff Mason

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A POTUS who is a Russian Intelligence Asset having a go at Germany for being in thrall to Russia. Got to admire Trump's talent at misleading and deflection.

21 ( +24 / -3 )

"We're supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia."

So the Trumpster considers Russia to be an enemy?

That's going to handicap negotiations a bit.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Pot. Kettle, etc.

I think it is something NATO has to look at. It is very inappropriate.

The chutzpah of this guy! Or maybe I'm just giving him too much credit and he's as dense as they come and lacking any self-awareness.

It's a tough call to make, that's for sure.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Bertie, y'gotta keep up with the times. Trump considers Putin a "frenemy"; he has no opinion about Russia itself as Russia, not being a human individual and thus incapable of harboring a unified opinion regarding Trump, is beyond Trump's admiration or disdain.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Germany and the EU should demand the US pay for the immigration crisis created 100% by the Republican party’s failed policies in the Middle East.

20 ( +20 / -0 )

Trump once again lite on facts and big on lies trying to make an argument to support his fake assertion's on Germany and NATO. It would be much better if everyone simply stopped having meetings with Trump. They do more damage than good to everyone involved. Trump should never leave the US and never have visitors. US is better off ignored at the highest level until it gets a sane, intelligent president. Over his bombastic lies and crapshow.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

The chutzpah of this guy! Or maybe I'm just giving him too much credit and he's as dense as they come and lacking any self-awareness.

He’s spot on once again and good on his chutzpah! Sometimes the truth is like an ice cold glass of water thrown in your face. Germany needs it.

-20 ( +2 / -22 )

So the US pays the highest % of NATO fees and countries who are supposed to pay only 2% do not pay in full AND tariff US goods. Come on about time we had a President who stands up for US interests. No wonder the economy all over the world is at a 60 year high

-20 ( +1 / -21 )

Love it! Merkel could have just said, "Not a prisoner of Putin, though, Trump! How about those tax releases?"

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Dango bongToday  07:54 pm JST

So the US pays the highest % of NATO fees and countries who are supposed to pay only 2% do not pay in full AND tariff US goods. Come on about time we had a President who stands up for US interests. No wonder the economy all over the world is at a 60 year high

That's laughable. USA gets base access around the world and doesn't pay the full cost of that. Due to "Trump accounting" you don't know your sunk costs. The moment you actually have to pay all of them, you couldn't. Which is why you don't.

How do conservatives make any money is my question, or is it all from mommy and daddy?

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Let's get this out there again... the agreement is that NATO partners pay up to 2% of their GDP on defence by 2024... not now, 2024.

As for Tumpet's comments about Germany... what an arse! Seriously, what is that prat's problem? Is he trying to make an enemy out of everyone who isn't a right wing nationalist nutjob?

17 ( +17 / -0 )

Seriously, what is that prat's problem? Is he trying to make an enemy out of everyone who isn't a right wing nationalist nutjob?

He's a wanker playing to his wanker fanbase. It will take years for America to recover after he's gone. Think about it, for the next 20 or 30 years you'll still have eejits claiming he was the best thing ever. Like the fawning Thatcherites and Blairites who still infest British politics. But at least those two knew when to be diplomatic.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

 And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia 

Did Trump ever go to school? Or is this a misquote?

11 ( +11 / -0 )

A good rule of thumb with Trump or Trump supporters is: anything they accuse someone else of being, that's something they're inwardly terrified of you finding out they are. Anything they say someone else does, that's what they're afraid of you catching them doing.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

A good rule of thumb with Trump or Trump supporters is: anything they accuse someone else of being, that's something they're inwardly terrified of you finding out they are. Anything they say someone else does, that's what they're afraid of you catching them doing.

Yes. To put that idea in Trumpian terms, just think back to the old schoolyard “Whoever smelt it, dealt it/whoever pointed the finger, pulled the finger” etc.

Trump’s tax returns must be radioactive.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Europe is not to be bullied by their child.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

A countries or an individual's submission to another's domination or intimidation is compounded and made more severe and odious, when the act is voluntary.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah I want to know as well how Germany has money to buy energy from Russia but no money to contribute their fair share to NATO.

-13 ( +1 / -14 )

And to all of you who claim it’s not due until 2024, Germany already announced they would only do 1.5% by 2025. Got 6 more years to meet their obligations yet already saying they won’t?

-12 ( +1 / -13 )

Maybe the U.S. should agree to a "target" of defending Europe from invasion by 2024.

-12 ( +2 / -14 )

So Germany already saying they don’t plan to meet their fair share by 2024 doesn’t require action until 2024?

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

Maybe the U.S. should agree to a "target" of defending Europe from invasion by 2024.

Maybe the US shouldn't be doing their utmost to start a war and they won't need to.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

And no their fair share wasn’t determined by Trump they signed it in 2014 promising to meet 2% by 2024. Now Germany says they wont, but USA please protect us from Russia while we pay them billions for energy.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

Love to see your remarks, uncle Trump! NATO is going to be in history trash bin! Bring it in!

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

The Rand assessment of overseas bases conservatively says 100-150 billion dollars per year. But I doubt anyone really knows because you have to consider variable costs for people assigned to those bases, consumables such as electricity and water as well as equipment costs.

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

Doesn’t matter how much they spend in total. Each NATO country signed an agreement to spend 2% of their GDP on military by 2024. Germany already announced 6 years in advance they won’t be meeting that by 2024 so they deserve to get called out.

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

Doesn’t matter how much they spend in total. Each NATO country signed an agreement to spend 2% of their GDP on military by 2024.

Doesn't matter what the agreement says. The doofus will wreck any agreement uncle Vlad tells him to.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

The countries that refuse to pay the amount they agreed to are the ones wrecking the agreement. Has nothing to do with Trump, other than he is demanding they do what they said. I guess when NATO promised Obama they would pay, they didnt think the USA would actually hold them to it.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

Here is what was signed. So who gets to be exempt from what they signed and why?

https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/official_texts_112964.htm

Allies whose current proportion of GDP spent on defence is below this level will:

halt any decline in defence expenditure;

aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as GDP grows;

aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade with a view to meeting their NATO Capability Targets and filling NATO's capability shortfalls.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

"Maybe the US shouldn't be doing their utmost to start a war"

It isn't.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

So who gets to be exempt from what they signed and why?

Doesn't matter. With the Iran deal and the Paris Accord, Donny has already shown that agreements do not matter. They can be broken whenever, if a party thinks its a bad deal. Why is this any different? :D

8 ( +8 / -0 )

"With the Iran deal and the Paris Accord, Donny has already shown that agreements do not matter. They can be broken whenever, if a party thinks its a bad deal. "

I sure am glad Trump got us out of these incredibly bad deals done by Obama.

Oh my...

Trump kicks off NATO summit with testy breakfast meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_8kJ_NTi1Q

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

BlacklabelJuly 11 10:35 pm JST

And no their fair share wasn’t determined by Trump they signed it in 2014 promising to meet 2% by 2024. Now Germany says they wont, but USA please protect us from Russia while we pay them billions for energy.

America signs Paris climate agreement---Trump breaks agreement.

America signs on to TPP --- Trump pulls out.

Talk about Germany changing its stance on an agreement, but its ok for America to do that any time it wants without consequence? Can you say hypocrite?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Maybe this is why Putin helped Trump win?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

So he just accuses others of being what he is. My god, really, 6D chess stable genius right there. I don't know how he comes up with such kind of like smart strategies.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If America wants other countries to follow through with their agreements, America should stop tearing up its own agreements.

In other words, Trump can go screw himself.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal but Germany did not

We should all remember that. When/If Iran is responsible for a nuke getting into the hands of anyone, we know who is partially responsible.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Ummm that’s the point. we LEFT the agreements that we no longer plan to abide by that another President made. Is Germany leaving NATO now that they are announcing they won’t do what they agreed to do as a member?

the same president of Germany who signed the agreement is saying they won’t meet it even with 6 years to go. At least all the other countries are smart enough to say they will try by 2024.

NATO itself anticipates only 15 members will meet the 2% by 2024. Which by the way, is the bare minimum.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Kentarogaijin, so the EU is suppose to pay for the much more expensive American natural gas and oil? It does not make economic sense for the EU to pay more to the Americans to make Trump and his minions happy. Trump is set upon destroying relations with the other countries of the world. I believe that the USA will be kicked out of NATO. Even without the pompous Americans, they have a better military force than the Russian Federation.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Maybe the US shouldn't be doing their utmost to start a war"

It isn't.

Nobody else is. So there shouldn't be anything to worry about then.

If America wants other countries to follow through with their agreements, America should stop tearing up its own agreements.

In other words, Trump can go screw himself.

Agreed.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

A perfect example of how the right practices shameless deception to spread their propaganda:

BlacklabelToday  12:20 am JST

Here is what was signed. So who gets to be exempt from what they signed and why?

https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/official_texts_112964.htm

"aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade with a view to meeting their NATO Capability Targets and filling NATO's capability shortfalls."

"Aim to move towards the 2% guideline" becomes "You absolutely must pay 2% right now!" when these hateful Trumpetters want to stake down an ally. Right-wing US wants a mendaciocracy.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

You missed the part where Germany alreaady announced they will not be at 2% by 2025.

so your “it’s not time yet” deflection is worthless.

So it’s not problematic that Germany pays 21 billion dollars a year to Russia for 70 percent of their energy? Wasn’t NATO basically created as a way to control Russian agression?

So when it’s time to confront Russia, Germany is not only conflicted they are undercontributing to the effort.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

So no Germany is not “aiming” for 2% in 2025. Which is what they agreed to “aim” towards as a “guideline” right?

Germany aims to spend 1.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2025: minister

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-military-nato/germany-aims-to-spend-15-percent-of-gdp-on-defense-by-2025-minister-idUSKCN1IF22U

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

BlacklabelToday  07:38 am JST

So no Germany is not “aiming” for 2% in 2025. Which is what they agreed to “aim” towards as a “guideline” right?

The right-wing lies just never end. "Aim" to move "towards" the 2% "guideline" means nothing more than at the end of the decade they have to be closer to 2% than when they started. Going from 0% to 0.00000000001% would fulfill it. You're just making up new requirements in your deceitful attempt to shill for the conman-President.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I know that doing anything other than condemning Trump is unacceptable in good company, and even racist and sexist, but he has a point.

If the US contributes a sizable amount of treasure to defend Germany, they shouldn't be exposing themselves to such a critical vulnerability vis-a-vis their main potential adversary.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Exactly. Germany should be buying that other 70 percent of energy from another NATO partner. For example, the USA.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

BlacklabelToday 05:53 am JST

Ummm that’s the point. we LEFT the agreements that we no longer plan to abide by that another President made. Is Germany leaving NATO now that they are announcing they won’t do what they agreed to do as a member?

Germany have stated no intention to leave NATO, they just wont fulfill an agreement they made as part of NATO.

Will the US be leaving the UN as it has pulled out of the planet wide agreement on climate change reduction?

Will the US be leaving the Pacific since it pulled out of the Pacific trade agreement?

An agreement is different to an association or body such as the UN or NATO.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

we LEFT the agreements that we no longer plan to abide by that another President made.

Which ends up destroying any credibility the US has. For the rest of time, the world knows that agreements made by the US are only as good as the president who made it, and that America won't abide to their agreements beyond the current president. Therefore any agreement made with America has to take into effect that regardless of the terms of the agreement, it will never last for more than 4 years. As such, all agreements are short time, and therefore the cost to the US needs to be higher to account for the restricted time period.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Hi guys, looks for me that some of you get the information about Germany directly from the US government. Or in other words: Fake News :-). For example Blacklabel is posting that Germany get 70% of his energy from Russia! Maybe you remember we talk about NG (natural gas) currently the portion of complete NG using in Germany is up to 7 %, rest of energy mix is: 20% wind energy; 10% solar energy; 8 % biomass energy; 4 % hydropower; 25% brown.-coal (German-mining), 13 % coal from US and China, 13% nuclear power. So Germany portion for buying foreign energy is less than 15%, the rest of the energy is "homemade" produced in Germany. The posted Nord-Stream gas pipeline, is delivering NG to the most of the European countries, not only to Germany. And one sentence to this really stupid NATO discussion and the protection of the US against the empire of the evil! Hi guys we are living in 2018! 1980 was in another millennium! I remember very well about the fear of the people in Europe and specially in Germany as “front-state” for the risk that somebody will start an nuclear war. If a war will start in Central-Europe, this war will be definitely the last war! I don't must tell you stories about this two dates in history: 1945年8月6日と9日. To invest in old military structures are no longer valid.  The new kind of war is the commercial-trade-war and this war start's now, and to be honest nobody can win this game. But it’s great that we have the new JEFTA in place, 600 M citizens of the EU and Japan can join this FTA. This is the real protection against war!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If America wants other countries to follow through with their agreements, America should stop tearing up its own agreements.

Looks like Germany is going to pay more, Kudos to the President! Don’t let them get away with it!

In other words, Trump can go screw himself.

Hmmmm.....From the meeting today, Trump looked like a giant Seagull swooping over the leaders and taking a crap on the entire EU.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Hmmmm.....From the meeting today, Trump looked like a giant Seagull swooping over the leaders and taking a crap on the entire EU.

Or a giant inflatable Trumbaby :)

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Hmmmm.....From the meeting today, Trump looked like a giant Seagull swooping over the leaders and taking a crap on the entire EU.

The movie Finding Nemo had a great depiction of those sorts of seagulls. They didn't win much either.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

For example, the USA.

A men brother. We shud make a 3,500 mile pipeline to Germany so they can buy are natural gas. That just makes so much since brother. Preach! :D

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Looks like Germany is going to pay more, Kudos to the President! Don’t let them get away with it!

In he category of 'Looks like North Korea is going to denuke' :)

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In he category of 'Looks like North Korea is going to denuke' :)

Completely different topic. We’re not protecting NK, but we are protecting Germany, less entitlements, pay your share.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Looks like Germany is going to pay more, Kudos to the President!

No their not. You didn't believe your president's words at face value you did you? Even you aren't that stupid.

Hmmmm.....From the meeting today, Trump looked like a giant Seagull swooping over the leaders and taking a crap on the entire EU.

The look on his face looked more like a bird crapped in his mouth and the taste was disgusting.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Stranger: "For the rest of time, the world knows that agreements made by the US are only as good as the president who made it, and that America won't abide to their agreements beyond the current president. Therefore any agreement made with America has to take into effect that regardless of the terms of the agreement, it will never last for more than 4 years. As such, all agreements are short time, and therefore the cost to the US needs to be higher to account for the restricted time period."

So, Stranger, what we have to do is just suck it up and continue to let other countries take advantage of us because of what former and dumb presidents/governments did, right? lol

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Ignoring the fact that your comments are out of touch with reality - you don’t have to do anything, but the consequences of the actions of the president is that he has destroyed any trust in American promises for the rest of time. The word of America can never be trusted again.

You may not like the game, but unless you turn inwards like North Korea, you’ll have to live with the consequences of Trump’s actions.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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