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NATO
Generally mixed on this. Trump is doing a good job to eff up a situation that both needs more stability, and needs more accountability by its member states. I really wish we had a better understanding on how beholden to VVP he is.
T has been pretty hard on NATO but in the big picture he is not wrong - though the delivery sucks in Trump fashion.
He is basically stating that NATO member nations should be paying their fair share of their own defense (absolutely correct) and instead are relying, at our expense, the USA to bail them out if the sh!t hits the fan.
Only a handful (4?) of NATO members are actually meeting the 2% GDP baseline. Germany is the most guilty as they are a little over 1% (1.1%) yet have one of the strongest economies in the world. They are also the most resistant to growth. German tanks now cannot fight, their planes not fly, and their ships not sail.
Promising to meet 2% by 2025 is a chuckle. This was always the unofficial baseline and dipped below that in the mid 90s. At the height of the Cold War the percentages were 3-4% of GDP spending to hopefully hold the Fulda Gap. The repeated hounding by the US for member nations to pull their weight is not new.
We do need a strong NATO but we also need NATO members to do their fair share and few of them are, particularly those with the means.
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