Editor-in-chief of The Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes explains why Trump’s undermining of NATO is more dangerous than we realize

13 comments

1. Yea it’s crazy that Trump speaks I’ll on my country which a slim majority have power. These are extremist and Trump will not win the Presidency. But him saying stuff like this other far right minded folks rally to his appeal. That’s bad for the world. We just need to keep calling out his lies. Trump will not win.

2. Victors need friends. Trump is turning the USA into loners, a friendless nation. Trump is turning the USA into losers. Trump is obviously Russian. My guess is they fund him by buying his properties at inflated values.

3. People eating this up without realising that all the countries that border Russia already spend more than the 2% needed. So any countries Russia could invade will still get the full support of nato.

4. Fuck Trump and Putin – the most evil men to exist in my lifetime

5. US dropping the ball at a crucial moment like this will be forever remembered in the annals of history. Its a failure of gigantic proportions, this will have a ripple effect for decades to come. It already effectively changed US / EU relationship.

6. Nothing undermines a partnership like asking the other members to meet their agreed upon obligations. How dare Trump suggest that our NATO partners should pay their bills.

7. It may be more dangerous than SHE may have realized.

8. The way I see it:

   NATO is great for Europe because big brother is supplying us with safety.
   Thanks to that safety and decades of peace, Europe has a flourishing economy, which in turn made the US the strongest economy in the world thanks to all of the trade.

   If Nato/Europe where to fall apart due to war, there’d be severe financial consequences for the US due to a major decrease in trade.

   I’m still all for more spending on defense in Europe itself, but if Americans think it’ll be cheaper to just let Europe be attacked, they’d be mistaking.

9. “He sounds like a mobster”… well, maybe that’s because he _is_ a mobster.

10. Also people like trump pretending the entire defense budget exists to defend nato

    It’s doesn’t, the vast majority goes to projecting power overseas because of their position as a global superpower.

11. Right… yet now we know that Russia attempted to join NATO under Clinton and was denied. We can’t get rid of our boogeyman. We need more defense spending g… it’s a racket like Smedley Butler said years ago

12. I wish she had reminded everyone that NATO without the US spends twice as much on their military than both Russia and China *combined*. A lot of knuckleheads in the US don’t have a clue about that and think everyone is freeloading here.

13. You know what dangerously undermines NATO? Not meeting your treaty defense spending obligations for decades on end…