One of my favorite TV channels is Memorable Entertainment Television (MeTV) because of its reruns of American TV popular shows of the 50s until the 90s.
But what I watched on Fox News (FNC) live after 3:00am (9:00am Brussels time) on Wednesday July 11 2018 qualifies just as well as Memorable Entertainment Television.
It was both surreal and fascinating. What am I talking about?
At the NATO Summit breakfast in Brussels President Trump wasted no time in repeating his demands for European allies (and Canada) to spend more on defense saying they should do so immediately. He opened his appearance at the breakfast with an attack on Germany saying its gas deals with Moscow made it a captive to Russia." Germany is captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia" Trump said referring to Berlins deal for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Everybodys talking about it all over the world theyre saying were paying you billions of dollars to protect you but youre paying billions of dollars to Russia" emphasized the president. He added that Germany is totally controlled by Russia."
The president was referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would bring gas from Russia to Germanys northeastern Baltic coast bypassing Poland and Ukraine and doubling the amount of gas Russia can send directly to Germany. The project is opposed by the United States and a few others European Union members.
The president then repeated his wider accusations against the NATO members as a whole for failing to pay their dues. On the top of that Germany is just paying a little bit over of one percent whereas the United States in actual numbers is paying 4.2 percent of a much larger GDP. So I think thats inappropriate also. Were protecting Germany were protecting France were protecting everybody and yet were paying a lot of money to protect. Now this has been going on for decades. This has been brought up by other presidents but other presidents never did anything about it because I dont think they understood it or they just didnt want to get involved" pointed out the president. He continued: But I have to bring it up because I think its very unfair for our country its very unfair to our taxpayers… I dont think its fair to the United States. So were going to have to do something because were not going to put up with it we cannot put up with it and its inappropriate" concluded Trump.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was caught off-guard and he pushed back softly stressing that NATO members have been able to work together despite their differences."
Trump lashed back: But how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group that you want protection? Youre just making Russia richer... Explain that!"
Trump said as he arrived at the breakfast that the situation is not fair to the taxpayers of the United States but we will make it fair… They will spend more. I have great confidence theyll be spending more" he later predicted.
Here is the VIDEO that captures the moment of truth in all its dramatic unfolding.
President Donald Trump exposed in a spectacular way in front of millions of home viewers how the Europeans milk money from the United States for protection against Russia" while they give millions of dollars for getting supplied with oil and gas from the same supposedly enemy" country.
Trump is not the first U.S. president who brings this up to the European allies. But he will be the first U.S. president who will definitely do something to fix this decade-long anomaly.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in AMERICAN THINKER.
TIBERIU DIANU has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
*****
One of my favorite TV channels is Memorable Entertainment Television (MeTV) because of its reruns of American TV popular shows of the 50s until the 90s.
But what I watched on Fox News (FNC) live after 3:00am (9:00am Brussels time) on Wednesday July 11 2018 qualifies just as well as Memorable Entertainment Television.
It was both surreal and fascinating. What am I talking about?
At the NATO Summit breakfast in Brussels President Trump wasted no time in repeating his demands for European allies (and Canada) to spend more on defense saying they should do so immediately. He opened his appearance at the breakfast with an attack on Germany saying its gas deals with Moscow made it a captive to Russia." Germany is captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia" Trump said referring to Berlins deal for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Everybodys talking about it all over the world theyre saying were paying you billions of dollars to protect you but youre paying billions of dollars to Russia" emphasized the president. He added that Germany is totally controlled by Russia."
The president was referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would bring gas from Russia to Germanys northeastern Baltic coast bypassing Poland and Ukraine and doubling the amount of gas Russia can send directly to Germany. The project is opposed by the United States and a few others European Union members.
The president then repeated his wider accusations against the NATO members as a whole for failing to pay their dues. On the top of that Germany is just paying a little bit over of one percent whereas the United States in actual numbers is paying 4.2 percent of a much larger GDP. So I think thats inappropriate also. Were protecting Germany were protecting France were protecting everybody and yet were paying a lot of money to protect. Now this has been going on for decades. This has been brought up by other presidents but other presidents never did anything about it because I dont think they understood it or they just didnt want to get involved" pointed out the president. He continued: But I have to bring it up because I think its very unfair for our country its very unfair to our taxpayers… I dont think its fair to the United States. So were going to have to do something because were not going to put up with it we cannot put up with it and its inappropriate" concluded Trump.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was caught off-guard and he pushed back softly stressing that NATO members have been able to work together despite their differences."
Trump lashed back: But how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group that you want protection? Youre just making Russia richer... Explain that!"
Trump said as he arrived at the breakfast that the situation is not fair to the taxpayers of the United States but we will make it fair… They will spend more. I have great confidence theyll be spending more" he later predicted.
Here is the VIDEO that captures the moment of truth in all its dramatic unfolding.
President Donald Trump exposed in a spectacular way in front of millions of home viewers how the Europeans milk money from the United States for protection against Russia" while they give millions of dollars for getting supplied with oil and gas from the same supposedly enemy" country.
Trump is not the first U.S. president who brings this up to the European allies. But he will be the first U.S. president who will definitely do something to fix this decade-long anomaly.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in AMERICAN THINKER.
TIBERIU DIANU has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
*****