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Scotch N Coke Monatore
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- Mar 25, 2024
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It was an illustration showing his incessant need to be in the spotlight and at the centre of every conversation. Something that to my eternal shame I am perpetuating in this thread. He's done this his entire life. One only has to look how he had to insert himself into the Central Park Five tragedy too understand this.
But if you insist.
Yes. I fully understand the context of the shove video and why his posturing was already redundant by the time of its happening. Just as I understand why Prime Ministers Trudeau, Johnson and President Macron were caught on a hot mic mocking his buffoonery at another NATO summit. And Boris is an expert at buffoonery, so he'd know.
I also understand the difference between NATO countries agreeing to a goal of spending 2% of their GDP on defence expenditure after Russian invaded Crimea in 2014. Something that pre-dated Trumps presidency by nearly 3 years and Donald Trumps continued delusion that somehow this, with a war very near members borders still hasn't happened when in fact between 20 and 24 of 32 aligned countries will have met or exceeded the 2% target by the end of this year. Some others will reach the target in the coming years. And some will never reach it due to their own economies or agendas. However, other than perhaps the New Zealand of the north. Canada this doesn't include any of the major players.
Although of course he did, It's not Trump who can claim credit for this. It's Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that can. That he is still banging this drum on the election stump shows that One: Like how tariffs work, he clearly has no understanding of geo-political issues, unless they are on a quid pro quo basis (another character trait). Two: He so bound up in them, that he believes his own lies. Three: He knows that his supporters are low information rubes, who without question cheer on anything that falls out of his mouth. Like his assertion that the US was directly owed money by anybody not he alone adjudged as delinquent. Oh, the irony! And Four: All Demagogues. Demagogue.
Google Trumps NATO summit visits and I challenge you to find an image where he is shunted down the back and off to the side. Every single image has him either standing front and centre as a US President should. Sitting directly next to or opposite Jens Stoltenberg. The Secretary General of NATO. Or in one on one meetings with other world leaders.
The idea that with the spectre of a soon to be hot war simmering away on their borders that they'd sideline any President of the United States is as absurd as it is idiotic. Would some avoid having a photo op with somebody using them as a political cudgel back home? Possibly, but I'd do the same if that person was needlessly trying to extort me.
The US expends more on its defence, not because its forced to or because all its allies are somehow like a delinquent renter during his days as a slum lord. As is Trumps view. Thats an easily digested sideshow for imbeciles without an understanding as to why those countries allowed spending to fall to historic lows after the so called post cold war peace dividend. Something that proved as misguided as Russia being a reliable supplier of cheap energy.
The US spends 40% of the worlds defence expenditure because it's in its own economic and geo-political interests to do so.
Historically, there has been significant support for isolationist positions in the USA. Isolationism appears to be increasing again in recent years due to the state of the US economy.