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Trump’s Enemies Suggest He’s Doing Russia’s Bidding At The NATO Conference. That Makes No Sense. Here’s Why.

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According to President Trump’s political opponents, his performance at a NATO summit today represented proof positive that Trump is a Russian agent. According to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Trump demonstrated fealty to Vladimir Putin:
According to President Trump’s political opponents, his performance at a NATO summit today represented proof positive that Trump is a Russian agent. According to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Trump demonstrated fealty to Vladimir Putin:
So what did Trump do wrong?
He said two things that made waves. First, he accused NATO nations of skimping on their national security spending. In 2014, NATO signatories pledged to President Obama that they’d aim for spending 2% of their respective GDPs on defense; this provision was presumably aimed at Russia. But few NATO signatories have met that mark so far, even though they are moving steadily in that direction. Trump stated, “I think that’s inappropriate also. You know, we’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France. We’re protecting everybody. And yet we’re paying a lot of money to protect.”
Second, Trump suggested that Germany’s protests against Russia seemed empty given their willingness to sign onto natural gas deals with the Russian government. Jim Geraghty of National Review has the details:
So is Trump wrong? The same media that spend reams of paper documenting Trump’s connections with Russia — which, they suggest, demonstrate Trump’s secret loyalty to the Kremlin — have said nothing about Schroeder. And now they’re ripping into Trump for. . complaining about Germany’s connections with Russia?
Now, maybe people are skeptical that Trump is criticizing NATO and Germany in particular for good reason — perhaps they think that he’s really just attempting to undermine them. Why, then, would he be calling for more spending on anti-Russian defense? Why would he be chastising Germany for doing deals with Russia?
Perhaps Trump is just mouthing off. But until he actually capitulates to Putin, it’s difficult to claim that he’s capitulating to Putin by calling for harsher action against Russia.

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