Trump Effect: NATO Partners Send $100 BILLION to O
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Once again, Trump can say “mission accomplished.”
His no-holds-barred style might not be politically correct, but it certainly gets the job done.
Six months ago, Trump spent two days at the NATO Summit in Brussels. There, he made headlines after he explained why allies needed to up the ante. Immediately, Trump was able to get an additional commitment of $33 million to finish out 2018.
Further, Trump promised these allies would continue to up their commitments to create an even stronger NATO.
At the time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “We understand that this American president is very serious about defense spending. And this is having a clear impact,” he said. “So we are stepping up as never before, allowing U.S. spending to go down.”
Once again, foreign citizens understand Trump better than leftists do. They absolutely hate to admit this is one more check mark for the list: Promises Made / Promises Kept.
Trump told us on the election trail that it was time the US stopped paying everyone else’s share. Unfortunately, the United States paid nearly three quarters of NATO’s funding before Trump decided it was unacceptable. But dems didn’t believe this was a promise the President could pull off.
If fact, after Brussels, most liberals assumed this was a one-time payment to appease the American President. They had no idea Trump would continue to monitor and influence the situation.
As the Telegraph UK reported,
Nato states will increase their defense spending by 100 billion dollars in response to Donald Trump’s demands that European allies shoulder a greater financial burden, the alliance’s secretary general has said.
Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that the alliance had heard Trump’s call for non-US members to shoulder a greater financial burden “loud and clear” and that allies are “stepping up.”
In conciliatory comments apparently designed to smooth over repeated public criticism of other alliance members by the US leader, Mr. Stoltenberg said member states had agreed to add $100 billion to defence budgets over the next two years.
President Trump has repeatedly complained that other members of Nato do not meet their spending commitments, including a blistering tirade at the NATO summit in Brussels in July in which called other member governments “delinquent.”
The Russian Element
Of course, nothing Trump does is complete without putting a little Russian spin on it. So let’s just take a look at how Trump body slammed Putin last summer.
As part of the meeting in Brussels, Trump challenged Germany to make some major changes. Obviously, Trump refused the accept the NATO chairman’s justification for dealing in a precious commodity (energy) with the very enemy NATO was formed to fight (Russia).
Thus, by simply asking Germany to reconsider getting its energy resources from Russia, President Trump put a shot across Putin’s bow, economically speaking. Of course, don’t take my word for it. Numbers don’t lie.
The Numbers
Russia encompasses an enormous geography, rich in natural resource. Some experts estimate that Russia contains over 30 percent of the world’s natural resources. To put this in perspective, the World Bank estimates the total value of Russia’s natural resources at $75 trillion U.S. dollars.
Russia has an abundance of oil, natural gas and precious metals that drive their economy making up the lion’s share of Russia’s exports.
As of 2012 the oil-and-gas sector alone accounted for 16 percent of Russia’s GDP. Further, they provide 52 percent of federal budget revenues and over 70 percent of total exports.
Clearly, Russia can’t afford to lose a customer like Germany.
Thus, only one choice remained. Russia increased their NATO budget alongside other countries and now we see the payoff. That $100 Billion ante takes a huge burden off the shoulders of the United States.
After this major accomplishment, even leftists can’t deny Trump is #winning. But like always, they will try.
https://theblacksphere.net/2019/01/trump-effe...anization/