While speaking in front of a remnant piece of 9/11 wreckage, a symbol and a ceremony of NATO's honoring our tragedy and also their invoking the Article 5 agreement, Trump used this opportunity and whined like a desperate slumlord trying to evict pesky tennents from one of his buildings instead of strengthening an alliance that he had consistently criticized during the campaign trail.
During his speech, at first praised NATO's response to 9/11, "...our NATO allies responded swiftly and decisively, invoking for the first time in its history the article five collective defense commitments."
But he never said that the U.S. would also stand tall with our allies.
He then attacked our allies as if they were deadbeat dads saying, "NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations."
He continued, "But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years — and not paying in those past years."
The member nations looked on in disbelief.
Trump surrogates have stated over and over again that what Trump said on the campaign trail has little meaning now since he's in office, but in this instance that's not true.
He put a smile on Putin's face with these words.
"If all NATO members had spent just 2% of their GDP on defense last year, we would have had another $119 billion for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves. We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats, even 2% of GDP is insufficient to close the gaps in modernizing readiness and the size of forces, Trump said.
"We have to make up for the many years lost. 2% is the bare minimum for confronting today's very real and very vicious threats. If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today, especially from the threat of terrorism."
While praising the inclusion of a remnant of the 9/11 attack, Trump had the nerve to say, "And I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refuse to do that, but it is beautiful. Each one marks a pivotal event in the history of this alliance and in the eternal battle between good and evil."
And this comes from a man who doesn't care how much tax payer monies he spends going to his Mar-A-Lago club.
Last year the Washington Post gave Trump three Pinocchios since Trump is never precise about what he means when he blasts NATO.
