Yeah, this is classic Trump. I certainly am not a fan, but the criticism of this I've seen really misses the mark. Realistically, this is aimed at a domestic base of Americans who believe that Europe has, for decades, not done their share to support NATO. It's also hard to argue with this given how many countries in Western Europe spend below the guideline of 2% of GDP. This will play well with a segment of the US population and the outrage by those countries which have been spending less of their GDP on defence will play even better.
It also isn't as dangerous as it seems. The Baltic countries and Poland, the countries with land borders with Russia and Belarus, all spend over 2% of their GDP on defence. New member Finland is planning to do so in 2024, largely to buy new F35s from the US. This doesn't really leave anyone who spends below 2% that is any real danger from Russia, aside from the spying and occasional assassinations that they carry out already. It seems like a pretty well calculated move to gain some domestic support for the upcoming election and the only downside is to make NATO relations a bit more frosty, and Trump hasn't ever really valued NATO as much as he should.
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 14/2/24 09:53 (UTC)It also isn't as dangerous as it seems. The Baltic countries and Poland, the countries with land borders with Russia and Belarus, all spend over 2% of their GDP on defence. New member Finland is planning to do so in 2024, largely to buy new F35s from the US. This doesn't really leave anyone who spends below 2% that is any real danger from Russia, aside from the spying and occasional assassinations that they carry out already. It seems like a pretty well calculated move to gain some domestic support for the upcoming election and the only downside is to make NATO relations a bit more frosty, and Trump hasn't ever really valued NATO as much as he should.