Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:02 pm
Donald Trump went on The Savage Nation Wednesday and told Michael Savage that all bets are off – we’re talking about the entire defense apparatus that has existed since establishment of NATO. If they’re attacked, he said, they’re on their own. Unless they pay.
That’s right: We won’t honor any of our commitments unless they pay up. Look, there are legitimate criticisms to be made of NATO, but it fills an important role in the defense of the West. Perhaps his hero Vladimir Putin has offered Trump a better deal.
So his first day in office, President Trump is going to hold our commitment to our allies up for ransom. He’s going to jump right on the phone and lay down the demands of his New World Order: If you want America’s help, show us the money.
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The two men first set the stage by talking about the “Arabizing” of Europe with “Muslims from the Middle East.” Take a listen courtesy of Right Wing Watch (If you can handle more, you can watch the full interview here):
“You’re gonna destroy Europe. Germany’s going down, they’re all going down. It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable what’s happening in Europe.”
Savage asked, “What would your first priority be as president?”
Trump’s answer was that, “Number one would be knock out some of the executive orders from Obama.” He said he would “start Keystone right away” because “we need jobs,” regardless of the fact that Keystone XL won’t create any jobs, as has been well-documented. Talking points know no facts, however.
That’s when Trump launched into his plan to turn the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into a pay-for-protection racket:
“I’d contact countries and I’d say, ‘folks, we love protecting you, we want to continue to protect you,’ but they’re not living up to their bargain. You know, you’re talking about billions and billions of dollars, Michael, numbers that you wouldn’t even believe. But they’re not living up to their bargain and you know we cannot continue to be the policeman for the world. Now, I don’t mind, but they have to pay, they have to pay. If you look at the NATO countries – 28 countries – they’re not living up to what they’re supposed to be living up to. They’re not paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which is very little by the way. So what are we supposed to get into World War III over a country that doesn’t respect us enough to even pay what they’re supposed to be paying?”
This alienating our allies, Trump assured Savage, will make “America a very strong country again.”
That’s right: Trump’s “What’s in it for me?” approach to life directed at foreign policy. At our allies. Nations with which we share a long mutual interest in security and a stable global economy. Republicans have long said the country should be run like a corporation, and Donald Trump intends to do just that.
The only problem is that he is such a rotten businessman. It is typical of the GOP that they could not have found somebody who actually knows what they’re doing to put their plans in effect. He wants to run not only the United States, but our allies, into the ground like he has his own past business ventures.
No doubt this parochial for profit approach to international relations will meet with the approval of conservatives. Last year, the Associated Press reported that,
A 2013 survey by Rasmussen Reports found that only 20 percent of respondents felt that the Navy’s primary mission should be as a ‘global force for good,’ while 70 percent said it should it primarily be to ‘protect and defend the United States.’
Our allies have never meant less than to Donald Trump, who seems to be the mass at the bottom of the gravity well down which all American ideals slide. Conservatives have claimed that it is liberals who have always been weak on defense, but they hadn’t met Trump, who can’t see past a dollar sign.
If the reality star would actually crack open that Bible he likes to wave around, he might find the words used by the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, when he said on June 16, 1858 in his acceptance speech as United States senator, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Those words come from the Gospel of Mark 3:25: “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” That house, in the 21st century, is more than just the United States. It’s not the 19th century anymore.
We live in an international community, a global community, however much conservatives might hate that fact. Ours is just a part of a web of alliances grown out of mutual interests. It is a community fostered, in large part, by the United States over a span of seventy years.
The time for isolationism, for pretending we can be alone in the world and forget everything outside our borders is past. Donald Trump seems intent on putting up walls – real and metaphorical – between nations. Walls we cannot afford, again, either metaphorically or physically.
As Hillary Clinton said Thursday, “We cannot put the security of our children and grandchildren in Donald Trump’s hands.”
Donald Trump’s first phone call will destroy NATO, and with it, the United States. In a Donald Trump administration, American support won’t be based on ideals but on dollars, and will go to the highest bidder.
Let the buyer beware.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
