Many could not help but notice how the so-called president was all smiles with the Saudis and all scowls in Europe. Why so nasty with the Europeans?
Notice that Josh Marshall wrote this before the news about Jared Kushner broke yesterday.
President Trump’s visit to Brussels/Europe wasn’t just another grab bag of impulsive aggression and gaffes. It wasn’t scattershot. It was quite clearly focused on destabilizing and perhaps eviscerating the NATO Alliance and somewhat secondarily, but relatedly, the European Union. This has been the strategic goal of Russia and before it the Soviet Union for decades. The sum total of everything that happened on this trip casts the entire Trump/Russia story in a decidedly more ominous light.
And the light was already quite ominous.
This is a significant point, I think:
On virtually every other issue he is almost infinitely malleable and susceptible to blandishments and praise. Except this one. Here he remains fixed on True North.
Remember, we went through the NATO Thing when Angela Merkel allegedly set him straight about his nutty idea that Germany owed NATO dues to the U.S. Trump appeared to soften his anti-NATO position, for a time. This happened just as The Atlantic was publishing a major feature called “Trump’s Plan to End Europe,” by David Frum. The Atlantic added a disclaimer to the article, but frankly, they needn’t have bothered. In Brussels this week Trump gave an ungracious speech, scolding allies for being cheapskates and refusing to explicitly reaffirm Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, which states that an attack on any member is an attack on all. Trump is the only U.S. president since NATO was founded who has not clearly stated commitment to Article 5.
Frum pointed out that Trump has surrounded himself with anti-European Union ideologues, such as Steve Bannon.  (I saw a PBS program on Bannon last week. Bannon strikes me as a man of mediocre intellect and with an adolescent’s simplistic view of the world, who has nevertheless set himself up as an “expert” because he is so supremely sure of himself, and because as a white man he gets benefits of doubts. Watching it made me think of the Kevin Klein character from A Fish Called Wanda. Except Bannon isn’t funny.) And that reminded me of something I quoted earlier this week by Josh Marshall:
Trump used a very high profile and public moment to chastise our NATO allies for not paying enough for their own defense and actually owing the US vast sums of money. As I explained below, this is demonstrably false, both in a general and specific sense. Beyond the inaccuracy, Trump’s comments clearly envision a transformed and debilitated NATO, one that is one half protection racket, one half high-dollar membership golf resort. You pay your dues or you’re out. It’s a service, not a commitment.
Trump also declined to pledge his support for Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, the provision that commits all members states – but most importantly the US – to defend members who are attacked. Article 5 isn’t a key part of NATO. It’s the cornerstone. In many respects it is NATO.
Meanwhile, a report in der Spiegel suggests Trump viciously attacked German and its export practices in a meeting of NATO/EU leaders. His team also created confusion among their EU interlocutors by appearing not to understand that EU member states only make trade deals as a group. It’s a bit hard to decipher precisely what was being discussed here. Was this really a misunderstanding or a bullheaded effort to make a point?
See also an article Anne Applebaum wrote back in July 2016:
Russia is clearly participating in the Trump campaign. The theft of material from the Democratic National Committee a few weeks ago was the work of Russian hackers. Russian state media and social media, together with a host of fake websites and Twitter accounts with Russian origins, actively support Trump and are contributing to some of the hysteria on the Internet. I’m not arguing that any of this has been decisive. But whatever resources Putin wagered on Trump, they are paying off.
For even if Trump never becomes president, his candidacy has already achieved two extremely important Russian foreign policy goals: to weaken the moral influence of the United States by undermining its reputation as a stable democracy, and to destroy its power by wrecking its relationships with its allies. Toward these ends, Trump has begun repeating arguments identical to those used on Russian state television. These range from doubts about the sovereignty of Ukraine — earlier this week, Trump’s campaign team helped alter the Republican party platform to remove support for Ukraine — to doubts about U.S. leadership of the democratic world. The United States has its own “mess†to worry about, Trump told the New York Times on Wednesday: It shouldn’t stand up for democracy abroad. In the same interview, he also cast doubt on the fundamental basis of transatlantic stability, NATO’s Article 5 guarantee: If Russia invades, he said, he’d have to think first before defending U.S. allies.
Putin wants Europe undermined. A suspicious person might think Trump is working for Putin.
Perfect characterization of Bannon — adolescent, mediocre — and couldn’t hold a job a Goldman-Sachs. Perhaps a contributor to his anti-Semitism?
NPR just mentioned Trump failed to hold a single press conference in 9 days in Europe. Not a new thing, really; he’s been terrified of the press from day one — though he’s been trying to coach that, I guess as disapproval of the press.
As it all becomes clear, it is not surprising that a filthy traitor would be pretty fearful. The only thing that has kept him out prison so far is an even more weak and more fearful GOP leadership. What a sorry state we are in, praising tyrants and disdaining time-tested allies. I hope they can forgive us when Trump and his whole sorry team of sociopaths is brought to justice.
There’s stupid.
There’s evil.
There’s stupid AND evil.
There’s frighteningly stupid and evil.
There’s horrifyingly stupid and evil.
And then, there’s t-RUMPLE-thin-sKKKin, and his posse:
A CONFEDERACY OF TRAITOROUSLY STUPID AND EVIL DUNCES!!!
maha,
I normally don’t correct spelling – especially not yours.
But it’s best that a friend tell you, rather than the alternative.
It’s Yurp. not Europe.
At least that’s the spelling in the Red (btw – didn’t that used to stand for Communism?) areas in every state.
I think when all is said an done even the historians will have a hard time understanding Trump’s loyalties and alliances. Trump admires dictators who get away with murder and repression, whether it’s Saudi kings or the Philippine president. But his admiration for Putin is like a love-struck groupie.
IMO, the Russian control is about spycraft, controlling Trump w/out letting Trump know he’s being led. From Trump’s point of view, everything is about business. The Russians have helped Donald get rich, while never giving him an ‘in’ in Russia. There is no ‘Trump Tower’ in Moscow. The Russians ‘bribed’ Trump with huge loans when he was on the edge of bankruptcy and they’ve made huge investments in Trump ventures. It appears they’ve used some Trump enterprises for money laundering. But they always let Donald think he was outfoxing them, while in fact they were always getting inside Trump’s empire in NY.
Europe let Donald spend money, but they had no problem making life difficult and expensive there. Trump’s investments in Europe became money-making opportunities for governments in Europe. They put up wind turbines where Donald didn’t want them and taxed his investments.
I suspect the Russians treated Trump like a king, and I’d bet they exploited his weakness for women not for blackmail, but because small-minded fools like Trump can be goaded into bragging. It’s my guess that the Russians know about criminal fraud in the US that would put Trump behind bars in the US. I think there are the three factors – they convinced Trump he could be the American ‘Putin’ with the power to deal out death to his enemies. (Trump is big on revenge.) The Russians made Trump a lot of money in NYC without giving up anything in Russia, except Russian hookers in Putin’s employ. And I think they let Donald know they have ‘compromat’ which they are determined to help Donald keep secret, with the implied and subtle threat they can ruin Trump. (Remember: much of Donald’s wealth is concentrated in NYC – he can’t flee the country w/out having the government seize his empire and sell off his property – a billion-dollar garage sale.)
The day after Trump fired Comey, he had the Russians in the Oval Office to tell them top-secret intell and to promise that the Russia ‘thing’ is gone. Was Trump promising Putin that sanctions would soon be lifted and it was no longer in Putin’s interest to destroy Trump?
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335412-trump-complained-of-trouble-setting-up-golf-courses-in-eu-during?rnd=1495900529
The easy answer to why does Trump hate Europe is because his patron, Putin does.
Lacking any intellectual ability and paired with a profound ignorance of damn near everything means Trump is simply not capable of summoning appropriate nuance in expressions of alignment with his patron’s views. Factor in his severely stunted emotional development and narcissism, and we get the child-like “hatred” of those European leaders he sees as his betters. Shoving the Montenegrin minister aside, being petulantly standoffish, inadvertently publicly demonstrating a relationship with Merkel similar to that of an errant child with a teacher losing patience, and a bullying lashing out in his speech is child-like acting out in response. And hence the stark difference in his attitude with the Saudis and Israelis.
When it comes to foreign policy, the emotional immaturity of Trump is a serious national security concern.
“Every time we talk about a country, he remembered the things he had done. Scotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two and a half years to get a license and that did not give him a very good image of the European Union.”
Trump clearly does not understand his role. And what’s good or bad for his golf courses does not mean the same thing for the US.
Mon dieu!
This is from BooMan – Booman Tribune. I think he has a point.
“But I have a simpler way of gauging this. When the Allies cracked the Nazi’s ENIGMA encryption during World War Two they allowed people to march into certain death rather than risk revealing that they could read the Germans’ internal communications. But the fact that we intercepted the Russian ambassador’s communications with the Kremlin was just presented as the evidence for Jared Kushner wanting to set up a private network with Moscow. That should be the most closely guarded secret we have, or close to it. So, to just go ahead and risk losing that capability is an indication of how serious of a risk they think Trump represents.
They would never reveal that information unless they thought removing Trump from power was a higher priority and that this information could lead to that outcome.”
If he’s right, it may be that within the CIA and FBI, removing Trump is a priority that could happen sooner, rather than later. How that would play out in 2018 & 2020 is hard to guess.
Trump hates Europe because it represents a relational responsibility he’s supposed to have it. Grannyeagle summed it up nicely in the previous thread. Trump is so consumed with his narcissism and his need for adulation that anything that takes from that need is scowled at by Trump. It’s nothing personal with Trump’s disdain for Europe.It’s just that he’s a big self absorbed bag of shit and Europe is getting in the way of his egotistical image building.
Kushner is going to be Krushner when Trump throws him under the bus.
Wow, Swami: If Trump betrays Kushner, how will Ivanka take that? This whole scenario would make a very good book and I can think of all kinds of reactions but I actually feel guilty thinking things like that.
Trump and his supporters hate everything and everyone who is actually successful. They view success as personal affronts. That is the basis for racism: racists understand at some deep level that they are failures, and thus want to tilt the playing field so it appears that they are better than their actual betters (of all colors, creeds, and creativities).
Trump is the epitome of the “ugly American.”
Ugly American, fantasy success, egotistical ego builder…I like all of these ideas and descriptors. I could add patron of evil and shining exemplar of the seven deadly sins. Still the award must go today to Charles Blow, who coined this regarding the impact of one who need not be named on his followers and his party itself.
“This is all an outgrowth of Trump’s degradation of common decency. Trump was the gateway candidate. When Republicans allowed themselves to accept and support him in spite of his glaring flaws and his life lived in opposition to the values they once professed and insisted upon, they moved themselves into another moral realm in which literally nothing was beyond the pale.”
Hoo boy, where to start? Ann Applebaum, “For even if Trump never becomes president, his candidacy has already achieved two extremely important Russian foreign policy goals: to weaken the moral influence of the United States by undermining its reputation as a stable democracy, …” Hahahahahahaha! She makes the comedy. We lost that reputation when we adopted torture as our official policy, and I don’t think brown skinned people around the world believe we’ve really given it up.
In WWII, after the Allies broke the Enigma cipher, they let people walk into certain death rather than risk revealing the fact to the Germans. The same was true, and even more tragically with Purple, the Japanese diplomatic cipher. There were hints that the attack on Pearl Harbor was coming, although not nearly as clear as some critics claim, but in the absence of clearer intelligence it was considered vital to protect the secret.
I am not a foreign policy expert, but my own belief is that Putin does not see it as in his interest to destroy NATO. Rather, he sees it as in his interest to have NATO pull back from their invasion of his spheres of interest, or at least stop their steady encroachment in violation of our promise back in 1990. He and his country would profit a lot more if we stopped provoking hostility and entered into genuine peaceful trade. It would have been a lot better if we had kept our promise, but we never do, do we?
“I am not a foreign policy expert, but my own belief is that Putin does not see it as in his interest to destroy NATO.” All the foreign policy experts appear to disagree with you.
Trump hates the Europeans because they didn’t give him a medal and make a big fuss over him. He’s such a big spoiled baby bag of shit. I’m praying with all my might that he gets taken down and booted out of office. And seeing how things are going my wish might come to pass.
Inside he’s the guy from Queens with money and no respect, trying so hard to prove to Daddy that he everything Daddy wanted. He ran for president to profit himself his children his company period. He does not see that the US government is not his private company or that other governments are something other than one of his stiffed contractors.
Now my anger is that McMaster thinks his job is not giving national security advice to a president, but trying to normalize the unappointed son in law of an uninaugurated president going to the Russian ambassador for private communications. It is not your job to carry their water sir. Would you sir,as an active duty U S Army General go down to the Russian embassy and attempt to get the Russians use their encrypted communications to communicate unpublic unrecorded agreements requests and “deals” while someone else was still president? Of course you wouldn’t, you might end up in jail. I get tired of lazy media who do not ask questions like that….
“Putin wants Europe undermined. A suspicious person might think Trump is working for Putin”
Trump sure does seem to have an issue with German PM Merkel, I can’t imagine why? As far as working for/with Putin I’m sure this is all just one big coincidence!
Trump clearly does not understand his role. And what’s good or bad for his golf courses does not mean the same thing for the US.
He has the solipsism of GW Bush. US relations with a country all depend on his personal rapport, or not, with their leader and what his “gut” tells him.
We’ll probably go to war with Australia because Orange Foolius had a cranky phone call with Malcolm Turnbull and/or a Trump project was slow to get permits.