I thought despite personal issues the Presidents trip went well, until today.....

"Expectations were low for the European leg of President Trump’s first trip abroad, but it turns out they weren’t low enough. Officials had briefed reporters that the trip’s highlight would be a speech in which Trump endorses Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that the NATO allies would treat an attack on one member as an attack on them all—the very essence of “collective defense.”

For most presidents, this is a rather low bar akin to the proclamation, in their annual address to Congress, that the state of the union is strong. But Donald Trump, in his brief speech on Thursday at NATO’s new headquarters, did not clear even this basic hurdle of American leadership."

BUT...he ended up scolding our allies and totally ignored the statement everyone wanted to hear.....HE DID NOT ENDORSE ARTICLE 5 at all. All our other leaders have publicly.

"Trump is hardly the first American president to call on allies to pony up more for their own defenses—President Jimmy Carter demanded that they each devote 3 percent of GDP to the military—and some allies have started spending more in part due to this recent pressure. But Trump is the first president to refrain from assuring the allies that he views the defense of Europe as a vital American interest.

His silence on this matter also puts him at odds with his secretary of defense, secretary of state, and national security adviser, who have all gone out of their way to express this commitment—reviving the question of just who controls U.S. foreign policy. Since the start of his presidency, Trump’s advisers have waged a power struggle over this issue in particular: nationalism vs. globalism, leadership of the free world vs. America First. His speech in Brussels suggests that this struggle is still raging."

He treats these things as simple real estate deals and they are far more important, especially to our friends in Europe who face the threat of RUSSIA each day. Russia's main objective is to weaken and destroy NATO because that is all that stands between them and a complete takeover of what they want in Europe.

"It is possible—unlikely but possible—that Trump is using his position on Article 5 as a bargaining chip for the allies’ promise to spend more on their defense. If so, it’s a misguided game: The defining article of a vital treaty is not to be toyed with or made conditional on some arbitrary fee. He’s sending dangerous signals both to allies, who may start to doubt America’s word and seek security elsewhere, and to adversaries, who may see the shrug as a temptation to take aggressive risks.

Whatever his motives or thoughts, Trump has taken what could have been an easy stopover—the allied leaders set up the meeting (less formal than a summit) for it to be just that—and turned it into another self-inflicted crisis."

Trump creates another unnecessary crisis on his visit to NATO.

LMAO!!!

The Other 98% - Schoolyard Bully

Originally Posted by Guest

The Other 98% - Schoolyard Bully

He's a base, no-class gutter scum excuse...for a human being.

What else would anyone expect from him?

Originally Posted by UNAmerian

He's a base, no-class gutter scum excuse...for a human being.

What else would anyone expect from him?

Coming from a reliable source, of course......

Originally Posted by Guest

LMAO!!!

You have to admit that is a crack up. Can't deny it.

Originally Posted by Guest

You have to admit that is a crack up. Can't deny it.

The Pope is thinking NUN of that.

The President is back in the White House and lying as he always does on twitter. He admits he uses twitter to talk to "his people", which I assume means the posters on here. They suck up everything he says no matter how bizarre and blatantly untrue it is.

"TRUMP: "I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they're doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in." — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: "Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in."

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it "toward" 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

AP FACT CHECK: A rash of Trump statements under scrutiny - ABC News

Do you people on this forum who utilize Russian website as your source for news like Zero Hedge or RT ever feel a bit guilty as you sell your country down the river so openly.

"TRUMP: "But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are 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." — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president's contention that they "owe massive amounts of money." They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024."


AP FACT CHECK: A rash of Trump statements under scrutiny - ABC News

I have read a few posts on here saying "good riddance" to our long standing European friends. Well, remember you said that, as Russia continues to make offensive moves in Easter Europe and we ignore them.

"While overseas in Australia for security talks, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is “the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS.”

“I think ISIS can do terrible things, and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith, and I worry about a whole lot of things about it,” McCain told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview today.

“But it is the Russians who are trying, who tried to destroy the very fundamental of democracy, and that is to change the outcome of an American election,” he said, referring to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

“So I view Vladimir Putin ... I view the Russians as the far greatest challenge that we have,” said McCain, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee."

Sen. John McCain: Putin the 'most important threat, more so than ISIS' - ABC News

Now, that does not sit well with you Trump lovers at all because of the investigation on going.

Seems to me that the posters on here could give a damn about our country or the folks we honor today, who gave their lives in defense of this country.

You seem to care about being anti progressive or anti liberal BEFORE and MORE IMPORTANTLY than being supportive of our country.

You WILL need to choose between country and Trump...you can write it down because that decision will need to be made sometime in the future.

This is the most un american man ever to sit in the White House.

Originally Posted by Guest

He's a base, no-class gutter scum excuse...for a human being.

What else would anyone expect from him?

Coming from you, that is a joke. Where's YOUR credibility, other than being a legend in your OWN mind?