Trump Is Training His Deplorable Base to Hate NATO and Love Putin *

[DemocratSinceBirth]

President Trump tweeted today that America’s NATO allies have been “delinquent for many years in payments” and should “reimburse the U.S.” That is not how NATO works. It is not a protection scheme where the allies pay the United States. It is a collective defense organization in which members agree that an attack on one is an attack on all. NATO members have agreed to increase their defense spending levels, but the target date is 2024 — which is to say, they are not “delinquent” on anything.

One cannot rule out the possibility that Trump lacks the mental capacity to understand the basic form of America’s most important alliance. But it is at least as likely that Trump is choosing not to understand this, so that he can precipitate a fissure within the alliance.

Last week, Trump’s national security advisers, who have traditional Republican views toward NATO (good) and Russia (bad), and the allies both expressed their hope that Trump would use the NATO summit to declare victory. Trump has been calling for the allies to increase their defense spending, and indeed they have. The increase has been ongoing since 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, but the allies signaled they would be happy to let Trump claim credit. “The European officials we’ve spoken to would love nothing more than for Trump to take a victory lap and claim credit for them boosting their defense spending,” reported Jonathan Swan last week.

...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-nato-summit-putin-russia-collusion.html

Hyperbole is mine, of course.

[TheBlackAdder]

1. Yep. Sheep are easily led. Bah Ram Ewe! Bah Ram Ewe! Putin, Trump and FOX News!

[dubyadiprecession]

2. He isn't training them.

These are all old grips of the far right.

[bdamomma]

3. he is teaching them

to love those dic...tators. China, and Russia and forget about our European allies.

And those who are blinded by this POS will believe him, they are already over the cusp.

We need to focus on us and being out there to vote, the more of us who vote, we can overcome.