• Trump told Angela Merkel, "you owe me $1 trillion" in their first meeting
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http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-anegla-merkel-1-trillion-1014437 President Donald Trump reportedly greeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a massive bill when she visited him soon after he entered the White House. “Angela, you owe me $1 trillion,” Trump said, referring to the gulf between what Germany agreed to contribute to its defense under a NATO arrangement and what it actually spent over the previous 14 years, an official briefed on the meeting told The Wall Street Journal in a story published Sunday. Trump’s brash remark to Merkel more than a year ago showcases his insistence that U.S. allies pay more for their defense—a stance he has maintained ahead of the NATO summit later this week. “The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more. Germany is at 1%, the U.S. is at 4%.” He continued by arguing that NATO benefits Europe “far more than it does the U.S.” “By some accounts, the U.S. is paying for 90% of NATO, with many countries nowhere close to their 2% commitment,” Trump tweeted. “On top of this the European Union has a Trade Surplus of $151 Million with the U.S., with big Trade Barriers on U.S. goods. NO!” Trump has complained about NATO since 2016 when he was on the campaign trail and said the U.S. could decline to meet its commitment to mutual defense because allies have not paid 2 percent of their gross domestic product, as agreed. Since his initial meeting with Merkel, the relationship between the two leaders has become only more tense. When Merkel visited the White House in April, Trump said, “Angela, you need to stop buying gas from Putin,” referring to a Russia-Germany natural gas pipeline, according to an official at the meeting. Merkel responded that she wanted to broaden natural gas purchases and said she would try to convince members of the European Union to include this in trade talks.
I wouldn’t talk about debts if I were you, Mr. Pusident
Meanwhile, the US has 21x that amount in debt.
because there isn't a sufficiently large stockpile of arms already in europe. the 2% target is so fucking arbitrary every president before Trump understood that it has no bearing on military readiness, but then he's obsessed over the trade deficit which only ever improves under an economic collapse
He's right that they should stop buying gas from Putin, though. They really need to ween themselves off Putin's great tit. It's not good to rely on him.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237016/59aabb61-15dd-403d-ae4f-d9961c2f10af/image.png Us too, Ange, us too.
Doesn't he owe that many apologies? Maybe they can make a deal, he apologizes for each fucked thing he's done to the US, and for each, she awards him $1.
With that kind of deal, we’d start going into the negatives.
With our military spending the nato bill is the last fucking thing that anyone should care about lmao
Other countries aren't spending too little, the USA is spending too much. Most of that isn't even being used efficiently.
Other countries are spending too little, since the goal is 2% GDP according to current NATO agreements. Problem is, that goal is kinda fucking stupid, and a lot of nations literally can't spend 2% of GDP on defence since it'd just lead to useless waste.
US debt is different, ours works because people buy our debt knowing that it will be paid off with interest, and it's one of the safest debt investments because the US won't default on it. In other words, US debt a ton of loans, owed to governments, companies, and investors, and is paid off in a timely manner, even though the total debt keeps rising because we keep spending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKHSAE1gIs
Talking about how the US debt works, and how it keeps rising, and talking about $1 trillion, the Trump administration has overseen deficit increases, including the giant tax cut, that are expected to cause the US to owe over $1 trillion in interest in 2019. So, Trump says Merkel "owes" him a trillion; soon, he on behalf of the country is going to literally owe America's debtholders, of which China is no small part, a trillion.
Where else would you suggest they get it from?
This is a really, really reasonable request and firmly in opposition to Russia. I can understand that people are very against some of Trump's friendly rhetoric towards Putin's authoritarianism, but his actions thus far have been very strongly against Russian influence. I am encouraged by actions like this and makes me optimistic in thinking that Trump, himself, did not collude with Russians to game the election. Members of NATO need to play their part in contributing an equal portion of their GDP for defense. NATO needs to be strong, and every member needs to play a part in it rather than draining the resources of a few members who are actually maintain their end of the deal.
But the current threats to Europe and the US are not something an increased military budget will help with. We should not be worried about Russian tanks and troops marching over the border but the less overt forms of influence that Russia engages in.
Have you not seen what is going on in Ukraine currently?
Seeing as nobody did anything about it, I fail to see how more spending on military would help with that.
Because there is a genuine concern that Russia is trying to expand itself geopolitically and will use force in achieving that goal. NATO's purpose is to act as a bulwark to that.
And NATO must be that bulwark in more ways than simply being a big blob of military hardware. He can talk it up all he wants, when what really matters are their more subversive acts, a military attack upon NATO members would provoke a serious response unlike the coercion of particular far-right parties to act counter to societal aims and ultimately disrupt the nations they're in by fracturing cultural bases. For example, what do you think Donald Trump is doing with his trade wars, antagonising of traditional allies and an agenda that so oft puts Russian aims ahead of those of America and those it has been aligned with in the past? For all the supposed lack of evidence of collusion, Trump is acting right out of the Russian playbook. That is as much what the threat is, not just the military hardware issue.
He does have a point. The german military is so underfunded that it's in disrepair.
Sure he does, but I'm not sure if Merkel can even take him seriously anymore, having a grown ass man throw candy at you tends to do that.
It's not underfunded, the money is just spent badly.
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