Trump actually thought NATO members pay dues to the U.S. like protection payments

[bigtree]

Joy Reid @JoyAnnReid 12h12 hours ago
Think about that for a moment. Trump, an adult who ran for president and won, thought NATO members pay dues to the U.S. like protection $.

Indira Lakshmanan‏ @Indira_L
During transition, sr official told me Trump wrongly thought NATO members pay dues to US. How could aides not correct & stop such a blunder?



Parker Molloy‏ @ParkerMolloy
He seriously tried to invoice Germany for $374 billion because he doesn't understand how NATO funding works. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-dismisses-white-houses-intimidating-300bn-bill-for-defence-dl7dk629k …


Mathieu von Rohr @mathieuvonrohr
A version of @thetimes "Trump presents bill to Merkel" story had previously been reported by @robinalexander_ @welt
https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article162965853/Was-Merkel-im-postsowjetisch-anmutenden-Weissen-Haus-erlebte.html …
11:21 AM - 26 Mar 2017

[tanyev]

1. Scheisskopf.

[Ilsa]

18. Ha hah ha ha ha! I learned a new word. nt

[Javaman]

19. apt. nt

[gademocrat7]

2. Mafia mentality.

What a buffoon.

[crazylikafox]

6. My thought too. He's a mobster. That's how they roll.

[yeoman6987]

3. Trumps dumb. The only thing the United States can do is lower our payment to 2 percent like every

every other country. We can't control other countries just our own.

[dawnie51]

4. No one in this circus act....

knows ANYTHING about government. Trump is completely ignorant, and his minions are perhaps not ignorant, but they only care about things as it pertains to their bank accounts, period. The level of ineptitude is breathtaking, on every level. This cannot go on much longer.

[Lucinda]

5. So much stupid...sooo little time...

[FSogol]

7. Trumpy wants his cut!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. They're called tributes.

[Ezior]

9. German military is a joke

So there's an actual issue there. Of course, other countries used to like the fact that our military is a joke. I can understand that.

If you look at the numbers, you expect somewhat decent armed forces because a somewhat decent amount of money goes into the defence budget. But I don't know what they do with that money, the results are a joke. We have jets that can't fly, helicopters that can't fly, drones that can't fly, broken equipment, broken guns, broken tanks. Also, not many tanks (few hundred) / jets (couple dozens AFAIK) / ... at all. And only ~100k soldiers.

So maybe we should just forget about that 2% GDP NATO thing and really give all that money to some nation where they actually know how to run armed forces. Or our politicians need to get their act together. Leaders of other NATO countries should actually take a close look at what's going on here. Obama was way too forgiving in that regard.

With what's going on in Moscow and Washington, this seems dangerous now.

[joeybee12]

10. This country was a joke under Bush

God only knows what the world thinks of us now.

[former9thward]

11. This smells like another fake news story.

It is all "anonymous sources". The White House has denied it and there are no sources on the German side.

Obama always demanded European nations pay more for NATO. They never did. We could always remove our bases from Germany and let them pay for their own defense.

[bigtree]

13. the source is in the op

Indira Lakshmanan, Journalism ethics chair at Poynter. Columnist at Boston Globe.

Link to tweet

Her account makes it believable that Trump would pull a stunt like that.

At any rate, any lede with 'White House has denied it' is the definition of 'fake news these days.

[former9thward]

14. No, the story is about Trump presenting a "bill" to Merkel last week.

There are no sources for that.

[bigtree]

15. well, you have the WH

...you go with that.

[former9thward]

16. I am not going with anyone.

But you are comfortable with the source of fake news -- anonymous sources.

[IronLionZion]

17. Some Germans would like that

They don't see the US as protecting them.

America benefits from having bases in other countries to support our missions.

[former9thward]

20. That is not the position of the German government.

They want the bases. I don't. I wish the U.S. would leave Europe. Let them pay for their defense.

[JHB]

12. Well, when the aides don't know better either...

...at least, the ones he'll listen to or can even get information to him, he's not going to know.

Maybe his lower-level aides need to buy ad time on FOX and brief him via snappy ad jingles.

They can call it "White House Rock." He'll love that, all the more because he won't get the reference.

At least until Bannon purges them.