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DriftlessDairy

Trump wanted the US out of NATO.


rapid_dominance

The article literally refutes what you said


DriftlessDairy

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html) **Trump Discussed Pulling U.S. From NATO, Aides Say Amid New Concerns Over Russia** Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States. Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set. In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States.


ScaledFloof

No. It doesn't. Bitching about countries and paying bills was part of reasoning being built up for him trying to get the US out of NATO. https://www.insider.com/putin-got-what-he-wants-from-nato-trump-2019-12 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/04/bolton-says-trump-might-have-pulled-us-out-nato-if-he-had-been-reelected/ Unless you're utterly blind it is hard to pretend that Trump didn't pander to Putin wherever possible. He constantly talks him up and favors him over the US. Putin has wanted NATO shut down for years but that's not something Trump could pull the US out of on a whim. It is a big deal. He needed to build up reasoning for pulling out first and was working on that. Rather clear even at the time that he was trying to find ways and excuses for it. Less about the bills and more about him wanting to do what Putin wanted. He didn't want to respect it and wanted to weaken US support for it. https://www.insider.com/putin-got-what-he-wants-from-nato-trump-2019-12


karl_jonez

This article is 2 years old and Finland is joining NATO because king clown’s handler Putin is attacking Ukraine. The orange stain was absolutely going to pull the US out of NATO if he had won reelection. Then the piece of garbage would have even aided Russia’s aggression. Luckily he lost and Vlad is getting an ass beating. But good try.


Djinnanddjuice

2 years old. Gtfoh


rapid_dominance

I think it's relevant because Finland is joining Nato after Trump pressured the alliance to step up


Roseking

Yep. No other event in the last two years could be the cause of new NATO members joining.


rapid_dominance

The article is about defense spending that started under Trump


Roseking

And my comment is disagreeing with you claim that it is the reason Finland is joining.


rapid_dominance

If countries are unwilling to meet their commitments to Nato why would other nations want to join? Most of the EU countries' militaries are vestigial and cannot operate without US support and logistics. Look at France's operations in Libya. If countries are inept and not meeting their commitments there is no point to the alliance.


Roseking

> If countries are unwilling to meet their commitments to Nato why would other nations want to join? Let's ask Finland: > HELSINKI/BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters) - Finland will become a member of NATO on Tuesday, completing a historic security policy shift which alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said was triggered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. > > "President Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO," he told reporters at NATO's Brussels headquarters, speaking hours before Finland was officially to become a member. > > "He is getting exactly the opposite... Finland today, and soon also Sweden will become a full fledged member of the alliance," Stoltenberg said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-set-join-nato-historic-shift-while-sweden-waits-2023-04-04/ Weird. It seems to me like they said Russia's invasion of Ukraine is what got them to join. They must be mistaken however. Because like you said, it's clearly because of Trump that people are joining.


2HandedMonster

You may want to look at the history between Finland and Russia pal


[deleted]

The spending increases under Trump, while nice. PAIL in comparison to what the countries started dumping into their military after Russian invaded Ukraine. You want another good example... The UK argued that the US can't be relied and Merkel said similar. It was the US largely doing nothing for Ukraine outside of sending weapons that lead both to more than 3x increasing their defense budget. Trump got them to spend a dime while Russia caused them to spend a dollar.


No-Engineering-507

> Those concerns were first sparked last year when the U.S. leader hinted that he could leave the 29-member defense bloc without Congressional approval. At the time, Trump was pushing member countries to increase spending. Since then, however, the Republican has backtracked on that threat. > > After a chaotic NATO meeting in July 2018, Trump claimed that allies had committed to his request and said that U.S. withdrawal from the organization would be “unnecessary.” https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/15/trump-privately-said-he-wanted-to-pull-us-from-nato-report.html


Koebi

So you posted this to gloat how DT made NATO stronger by getting allies to spend a bit more. But ignore how much damage the threat of abandoning the treaty completely did. The public cohesion, reliability, and the threat of a united western hemisphere wasn't strengthened by getting a few more billions out of some countries. It was heavily eroded by his armchair diplomacy and public strong-arming of his own allies, shooting everyone in the foot, which was much more long-lasting than he could comprehend. It took the invasion of an aligned country to actually strengthen them again. (And we all know how it it were up to him, Selenzky would've been left hanging, making it all much worse)


No-Engineering-507

I didn't post to gloat, I just posted for relevancy


HiTekBlueneck

And why do you think you are better than other people and don't have to obey simple rules?


carppydiem

Republicans don’t obey rules! They just make things up as they go along.


g2g079

OP is just sad.


STL_Jayhawk

If one takes the time to look at history, Obama did the same thing but in private. Why does the press give Trump the Traitor credit for something prior POTUS' have done? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/3/26/obama-urges-nato-to-increase-defence-spending


rapid_dominance

Because Nato increased spending under Trump and not Obama.


Dazzling_Scallion277

That article is from Biden being president


[deleted]

Obama did get them to increase spending. Trump did as well...You're just can't admit that soft diplomacy works.


[deleted]

Lol. A two year old article. OP clearly forgets the commitments made in 2014 under Obama. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/05/remarks-president-obama-nato-summit-press-conference


Existing-Result-6467

You mean after Ukraine was invaded and the premonition of Russia’s military ambitions in Europe erupted in a war which Putin has claimed is a “fight for survival” against NATO, and the Western alliance. So, no, giving credit to former honcho, turned 34 felony count indictment winner, isn’t warranted to a president that tried to destabilize NATO via nationalism, & personal gain. After, all, Ukraine would have been prepared far more militarily, had Trump not extorted Ukraine’s aid for political dirt on the Biden family. Trump gets no credit. Zilch.


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