this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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What is clear, however, is that Trump — who ostensibly spent four years as president of the United States — has little clue about what NATO is or what NATO does. And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish — the kind of outrageous nonsense that flows without interruption from an empty and unreflective mind.

“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, recalling an implausible conversation with an unnamed, presumably European head of state. “‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted responding. “‘No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”

The former president’s message was clear: If NATO members do not pay up, then he will leave them to the mercy of a continental aggressor who has already plunged one European country into death, destruction and devastation.

Except NATO isn’t a mafia protection racket. NATO, in case anyone needs to be reminded, is a mutual defense organization, formed by treaty in 1949 as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union hardened into conflict. “The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” states Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

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[–] teft@lemmy.world 153 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”

Boy, that's rich coming from Il Douche.

[–] Aldehyde@kbin.social 73 points 7 months ago (1 children)

From somebody being sued by their former attorney for not paying their bills

[–] Theprogressivist@lemmy.world 40 points 7 months ago (1 children)

From somebody who was sued for not paying his contractors.

[–] 7u5k3n@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Doesn't he owe a bunch of cops money from like 2016 still?

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 96 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The only time the mutual defence treaty was triggered is because the US was attacked and all countries in NATO stepped up to the plate.

[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 83 points 7 months ago (8 children)

Not just stepped up to the plate, but went pretty much all-in on a COMPLETELY pointless invasion against what was almost certainly the wrong country.

That's how committed they were to NATO.

[–] dariusj18@lemmy.world 31 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I am assuming you mean the Iraq war, but that was not a NATO operation, it just happened to have many NATO allies providing support, not all of them.

[–] noride@lemm.ee 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To your point, it was called the "Coalition of the willing". Article 5 was not invoked.

[–] SuperIce@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Kind of, but not really. NATO did operations to ensure US's immediate security against further terrost attacks. Once the US affirmed it had it's shit together, NATO pulled out. Any countries that stuck around for the counter-attack wars (like Afghanistan and Iraq) did so under different banners. NATO does not encroach or encourage war, it exists to prevent it and will do what's necessary up to the point a nation is deemed safe again.

It circles the injured sheep and fights off the wolf. Once this is done, it doesn't then hunt down the fleeing wolf. This works very well because other animals aren't scared of NATO controlling the lands, but the wolves are also scared of trying to attack that herd.

Similarly, if everything went wrong for the US in Afghanistan, NATO wouldn't help. If the US retreated and started getting attacked in its homeland, NATO would.

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[–] jantin@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

And the attack was done by rogue non-state actors. Europe agreed to go burn a whole district because a thug who lived roughly there punched USA in the face. Now Europe faces an entire mafia from another town and Trump says "should've bought better gear, bye suckers".

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 77 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The guy currently on trial for racketeering is asking people for protection money or something bad will happen to them? Who would have thought!

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Also "you have to pay your bills, unlike me who literally NEVER pays ANY bills." I mean, if there is one consistent element in Trump's character for the decades he's doing business is that he's constantly stiffing people.

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 months ago

Worked with a batshit crazy old lady in the quality department for about a year. She was stuck there (both job and location) while she cared for her very elderly mother. Before that she had something to do with finance, fashion and F1 racing (like a client liaison or something) but any way. She recalled a tale from late 80s early 90s of being in a very specific bank (Royal back of Scotland?) and watching Mr Trump storm out after being denied a loan. The utter bliss she experienced in telling that story every ting i asked to hear it again... Brought happiness to my heart.

I miss you Marylin you batshit crazy old lady.

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Dude's a mob boss, everyone around him has taken the fall and he's still there. That's insane.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, And Hells Angels lied to me. I thought mob bosses were intelligent, charismatic, and capable of playing 4d chess. Meanwhile...

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 56 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Can't lose what you never had. Its laughable to pretend that Trump ever had a clue as to what NATO is or does.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 40 points 7 months ago (1 children)

He doesn't understand OUR military, how is he going to comprehend the utility of a trans-national mutual defense accord?

I'm frankly amazed he doesn't choke on his food, he's so fucking stupid.

[–] Igloojoe@lemm.ee 18 points 7 months ago

If Putin doesn't like it, then Trump doesn't like it. He probably doesn't even know why.

[–] knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

He thinks NATO is his slum tenants and fancies himself a mob boss getting paid protection money.

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[–] CynicRaven@lemmy.world 51 points 7 months ago (5 children)

"One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, 'Well, sir,

Imma stop it right there. It's always possible that someone, out of a general professional attitude or decorum, used that 'sir' wording, but I'll be damned if I've heard Trump use that word in a context that doesn't sound like he's just making some bullshit up.

I mean, he pretty much always sounds like he's making some shit up, but my point stands!

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I like how John Bolton (who is a massive douche nozzle by the way but gotta give credit where credit is due) called Trump out by saying that any time Trump tells a story where someone calls him "sir" then you know it's absolute bullshit.

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[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 18 points 7 months ago

"Sir" is one of Donnie's tells. If he tells a story that includes someone calling him sir, it's completely made up/never happened.

I mean, that's aside from him lying if his lips are moving.

[–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 10 points 7 months ago

If you get called "sir" in Europe, you are most likely getting scammed by a taxi driver.

[–] blazeknave@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

This is some LinkedIn "then everyone clapped and it turned out the wolf I saved was the hiring manager all along and they made me CEO" type shit

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 41 points 7 months ago (6 children)

How do people not see this as being directed by Putin? Russia is literally the only beneficiary of this "stupidity".

[–] Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

For the GOP voters? 50+ yrs of highly concentrated, and pointed propaganda.

For the nonvoters? Bc their favorite social media sites (this one included) are full of russian bad faith actors working to make Status Quo Joe seem somehow worse, or, at the very least, more ineffectual, than ronald mcdump.

[–] jkrtn@lemmy.ml 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just saw a fella here the other day absolutely screeching and livid that Joe "hasn't done anything for Flint." I mean, neither did Donald and also Donald hamstrung the EPA as best he could to make things worse all over the nation.

The dishonesty is so overt. That guy didn't respond to anything, either, so no updates if he is concerned for the EPA or not.

[–] Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Its all performative. Theres no shortage of 20something yr old leftist idealists that are ripe for the brainwashing. Just discovered The Dunk Tank, which i guess is more of the same.

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[–] ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The funny thing is, Russia would never actually strike NATO. I don't know what the fuck State or JCS are letting him get away with while DOJ jacks off with reports about the incumbent's mental health, but Trump needs to be gagged and thrown into solitary yesterday.

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[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 40 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You gotta pay your bills.

This fucking guy... LOL oh man that is something isn't it? The guy famous for never paying his bills says this about a REAL life and death situation... FUCK TRUMP

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[–] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Trump supporters are more pathetic than the man himself. This is exemplified simply because this demonstration of his ineptitude as well as his various acts of indecency and immorality cannot and will not sway their opinion of the man.

The only way to change their opinion of him is for Trump himself to "go woke" so hard they no longer recognize him as their Cheeto covered Jesus.

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[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 28 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Remember in 2016 when Republican types were adamant that Hillary wouldn't be tough enough on Putin, and that Liberals were Communists? And that the Liberals would let Russia do whatever it wanted?

And now those same Republicans are outspoken against helping Ukraine, and want to let Russia just have it. Their preferred candidate wants to dismantle the organization of countries that stands as the United front against Russian expansion. Working deliberately and blatantly toward Putin's interests isn't a problem to them at all.

Back then, I thought that if there was a single (decent) principle they actually stand for, that would have been it. Apparently I was wrong.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Kompromat in the form of the RNC's emails that have not been leaked.

[–] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

Emails that WikiLeaks apparently has but said "nah we're not going to release them because there's totes nothing in there trust us".

They could've been neutral and trustworthy. Instead they had an axe to grind against Hillary, and prioritized that over being known for objective truth.

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[–] ArdMacha@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

He doesn't care, he's doing what Putin tells him. Destabilise the western alliance

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Both sides though, right? I mean… we have a guy wanting to plunge America into absolute chaos by dismantling hundreds of years of progress and ending democracy as we know it just so he can protect his sad little crumbling empire of corruption….

And another guy that’s old.

[–] Wrench@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

And the other guy is slightly older

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Based on discourse online post the invasion of Ukraine, it seems there's a few Americans that don't know what NATO is/does, nor how it differentiates from how the US conducts its military. For starters, it's anti-militant—kind of the point—unless it has no other viable resort, and it's the threat of that last resort that bolsters the passive-security within NATO. It is safety in numbers and it fails if the herd scatters.

As a result, Article 5 has only needed to be acted upon once and the irony is that it was the US that raised the call for help and the other nations responded.

If Trump has his way, WW3 will kick off, everyone will suffer, and it'll end with the US saying, "Fucking hell. Wow. Let's not let that happen again. We need some sort of agreement to make sure of that."

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[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Stop applying Hanlon's Razor to Trump.

It's fucking malice.

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[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Whether he knows what it is, is totally irrelevant. All he cares, is that he has something else he can hate on, something which his followers don't understand, so he can show them he's the man who stands up to people. Whether he is standing up to someone or not.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago

Well, really what it comes down to is that Putin wants Nato dissolved, and Trump is Putin's lil bitch.

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Trump knows what NATO is. This is rhetoric for his voters.

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I can guarantee you that if it isn't a woman's ass we're talking about, there's no chance he's grasped it.

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