Trump went to NATO and sent markets tumbling by announcing that there may not be a China trade deal and threatening more countries with trade wars.
Trump said during a meeting with French President Macron, “There are countries that are not fulfilling their commitments. Maybe I will deal with them in a different way, I will work something out where they have to pay. We don’t want people to be delinquent. Including France, countries not paying their way, you know, less than 1%, you have a couple less than 1%, not fair. So nato made a lot of progress in the last three years and the word flexibility is very important. They’re not just looking at one area, but they’re looking at the world.”
Video:
It has been three years and Trump still doesn't understand how NATO works as he threatened more trade retaliation against foreign countries. pic.twitter.com/MedsZ3U8oO
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 3, 2019
Trump’s change in rhetoric on NATO can be attributed to the simple fact that he thinks that they have upped their financial contribution for defense. Most of the countries aren’t meeting the military spending threshold. NATO appeased Trump with $100 billion more in spending.
Markets already dropped after Trump said that there might be no trade deal with China until after the election, and the president’s comments about shaking down countries for NATO defense cash with threats of trade retaliation only made the situation worse.
Trump still doesn’t understand how trade wars and NATO work. He is harming the US economy and creating instability and tension within the NATO alliance.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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