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President Trump in 2018 called out the factors that led Putin to invade Ukraine
American Thinker.com ^ | February 27, 2022 | Rajan Laad
Posted on 2/27/2022, 7:33:41 AM by Kaslin
A few years back in 2018 (which seems like the age of innocence considering what the world has devolved into currently), President Donald Trump had a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Unlike most meetings where polite banter occurs before TV cameras, and core dealings occur behind closed doors, the cameras were allowed to remain for the entire duration of the meeting.
After the customary pleasantries, Stoltenberg emphasized the importance of NATO for the EU, he thanked Trump for compelling others to contribute more to NATO, and said he looked forward to Trump’s meeting with President Putin.
It was at this moment President Trump launched into a powerful three-minute oration that explains why Putin felt empowered to invade Ukraine.
The following is a gist of Trump’s remarks and the inferences that can be drawn from them.
Trump observed that decades of cowardice in challenging the status quo and probably self-interest have prevented past US Presidents from addressing and dealing with the stark disparity in contributions to NATO.
Trump noted that wealthy nations such as Germany pay merely over 1 percent of their GDP to NATO while, while the US, pays 4.2 percent of a much larger GDP.
He said this is greatly unfair to US taxpayers. This is probably the first time any leader referred to his country's taxpayers at NATO. Usually, during their high-level meets, all personnel involved conveniently forget the citizens who pay for their pomposity.
Trump said it was time that nations such as Germany and France pay their fair share to NATO.
Then Trump pointed out that Germany shut down their coal plants and then struck multi-billion-dollar pipeline deals with Russia, making it dependent for its energy on Russia. Hence Germany has become captive and subservient to Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
