Trump Calls NATO Obsolete and Dismisses EU in German Interview

[FarCenter]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called NATO obsolete, predicted that other European Union members would follow the U.K. in leaving the bloc and threatened BMW with import duties over a planned plant in Mexico, according to an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper that will raise concerns in Berlin over trans-Atlantic relations.

Quoted in German from a conversation held in English, Trump predicted Britain’s exit from the EU will be a success and portrayed the EU as an instrument of German domination with the purpose of beating the U.S. in international trade. For that reason, Trump said, he’s fairly indifferent whether the EU breaks up or stays together, according to Bild.

Trump’s reported comments leave little doubt that he will stick to campaign positions and may in some cases upend decades of U.S. foreign policy, putting him fundamentally at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues from free trade and refugees to security and the EU’s role in the world. On Russia, he suggested he might use economic sanctions imposed for Vladimir Putin’s encroachment on Ukraine as leverage in nuclear-arms reduction talks, while NATO, he said, “has problems.”
“It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump was quoted as saying about the trans-Atlantic military alliance. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”

While those comments expanded on doubts Trump raised about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during his campaign, he reserved some of his most dismissive remarks for the EU and Merkel, whose open-border refugee policy he called a “catastrophic mistake.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-15/trump-calls-nato-obsolete-and-dismisses-eu-in-german-interview

[BeyondGeography]

1. Sounds like he needs to get to know his own Secretary of Defense

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mattis-if-we-did-not-have-nato-today-we-would-need-to-create-it-2017-01-13

[Jacob Boehme]

2. Trump-o makes these outrageous statements....

....and I always come away with the sense that he's angling for promoting another personal business deal behind these comments, or he's angling to improve an existing deal. Regardless, I always get the sense that he's being highly deceitful above and beyond his everyday duplicity.

[edhopper]

4. He has massive debt

with Russia.

[democratisphere]

3. Sure. drumpf can hand the security of Europe over to his buddy Putin.

Think of the money the US can save.

[dalton99a]

5. Good boy!

[milestogo]

6. ...

[Chasstev365]

7. THE CIA and our allies are getting fed up with kind of irresponsible, uninformed talk

Proceed, Benedict Donald.....

[dalton99a]

9. One thing Trump has been consistent about is Russia's talking points.

He knows what Putin wants, and he's hellbent on delivering it.

[DonCoquixote]

8. Trump has just defecated

on the grave of every American soldier that fought to keep Europe free from Soviet dominion. Granted I myself got tired of the EU painting a golden halo around its brow, and speaking as if that was the new wave of civilization when they couldn't even get together to build a proper airplane. All the same, go ahead and read papers like Asia times or RT and you'll see that what they're talking about is a Russia that extends from Lisbon to Vladivostok, though they have used terms Dublin to Vladivostok as well. Is anyone surprised that this first meeting that Trump plans to do is going to be held in Iceland? At this rate Russia might very well extend to Canada.

Heaven knows there's a bunch of people in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming that would probably go ahead and willingly be under the reign of the Russians because Russians are white. In any case if we ever lose Germany, or for that matter if we ever lose Alaska we will have Trump to think, and our duty will be before last dying breath to make sure that Trump is hung around the neck of the Republican Party like a magnet encrusted albatross!

[Chasstev365]

11. Great Post!

[dalton99a]

12. +1.

[etherealtruth]

10. Funny how these all benefit Russia/ a coincidence...?

Puty's useful fool is doing exactly what is expected of him

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

13. I wonder if Trump thinks the Constitution is obsolete, because like NATO,

“It’s obsolete ... because it was designed many, many years ago”

[NastyRiffraff]

14. threatened BMW with import duties over a planned plant in Mexico

BMW, aka Bayerische Motoren Werke is a German company. Why the hell does Dump have any business threatening a German company over a plant in Mexico?

He's thumbing his nose at Europe.

[branford]

18. Taking a guess,

I assume the Mexican plant is for cars destined for the North American market.

Trump has been pretty consistent that he wants large companies, foreign and domestic, who reap huge profits in the USA to actually manufacture in the USA.

This is a position he co-opted from Democrats, supported by American unions, and makes many conservatives nervous. The kneejerk opposition to anything Trump says will not help us among the working class and union voters we desperately need come 2018 and 2020. Many have apparently not learned the lessons from the Clinton's losses in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. Anyone still doubt he's Putin's puppet?

[GoCubsGo]

16. No doubt, whatsoever.

It's obvious that Putin's hand is so far up Trump's backside, he can tickle his brain, what brain there is up there.

[TheDebbieDee]

17. Our NATO allies purchase huge amounts of US-made

weapons and weapons systems every year! Pissing off our NATO allies or attempts to disband NATO will only result in tens of thousands of weapons industrial employees coast to coast losing their jobs...