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Trump's Second Term

“Our American ancestors did not shed their blood at Concord and Trenton, Gettysburg and Shiloh, Midway and Normandy, just so that a band of thieves, radicals and lunatics could come in and loot, pillage our nation,” Trump said days after financial filings showed he earned more than $2 billion last year.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board this week accused Trump and his family of “profiting off the presidency in ways that demean the office.”

Trump’s windfall includes more than $1 billion from his crypto businesses ― money he pocketed, while The New York Times reported that some 764,000 other crypto wallets suffered massive losses.
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www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Trump Mocked After ‘Thieves, Radicals And Lunatics’ Line Backfires Spectacularly

The president's comments were a little too "on the nose" given his massive windfall since returning to the White House.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
 
Nessie said:
I hope the message to Trump at NATO is that Europe does not need the USA to defend it, and indeed it never did, that has always been a myth.
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I'd argue that we did through most of the Cold War. Western Europe didn't have the conventional armed forces to deal with the Warsaw Pact. Even though we subsequently discovered that the Soviets weren't sure whether Poland would have defected

Nessie said:
It is the US arms industry that demands sales to Europe, that wants the impression Europe is reliant. If Trump wants to start wars with Iran or anyone else, he is on his own, as Iran has not attacked NATO. I do not count some Saudi's terrorist action in NY, that resulted in the invasion of Afghanistan, as an attack on NATO, even though NATO countries supported the USA.
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Trump is certainly throwing away lots of US soft power and trade opportunities
 
jimbob said:
I'd argue that we did through most of the Cold War. Western Europe didn't have the conventional armed forces to deal with the Warsaw Pact. Even though we subsequently discovered that the Soviets weren't sure whether Poland would have defected



Trump is certainly throwing away lots of US soft power and trade opportunities
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True, but then again, how much would conventional forces have helped?

Guns, tanks, soldiers and planes are all the same to a nuclear blast.
 
Darat said:
I think we do now have proof that Russia is not the threat it was thought to be, so some of the underpinnings of NATO may no longer exist.
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It has been known for a long time. In 1985 at university, an RAF intelligence officer gave a lecture where he said that the then Soviet Union would struggle to make it a few hundred miles into West Germany, because most of their equipment was old, not working or non-existent and their officers were totally disconnected from and mistrusting of the soldiers. Apparently the soldiers were not even trusted to have maps. He talked about the level of corruption that meant local commanders exaggerated their resources, whilst syphonning off funding for themselves. He gave an example of the claim they had 20,000 tanks, but in fact at best, they had 2000 that could pose a threat. He doubted that Poles would fight with Russians and that they would be just as likely to turn on each other. The biggest threat was the nuclear one, that the UK and France alone could counter by guaranteeing MAD and that he thought NATO had too few ammunition stores and not enough to last more than a few weeks.

The Soviet/Russian threat has been exaggerated, to sell weapons.
 
Q: Are you gonna sell F-35s to Turkey, and what about the legal restrictions?

TRUMP: Why wouldn't we do that? Turkey in many ways has been much more loyal than other countries than we think would be loyal. It's certainly something we'd consider.

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Greenland

Trump on Greenland: "That's what hurt my relationship with NATO. Because Greenland doesn't help Denmark. Denmark doesn't spend money to really help Greenland, but it's an important part for the United States. And it's surrounded by China ships and Russian ships. Greenland should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark. We could remove all our soldiers out of Europe. They better be careful."

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Reporter: Are further troop drawdowns in Europe likely?

Trump: We’re going to see. I was very disappointed with NATO. Frankly, if it weren’t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended.

I felt I had to attend because, you know, I know he’s gone all out. It was a big thing to have NATO come to Turkey—or anyplace else. It’s a big thing.

But we weren’t treated well because we did something in Iran. We don’t need anybody’s help. I didn’t even want their help. But before I asked, they said they wouldn’t be there.

We’ve invested trillions of dollars in NATO. Why? To protect European countries and others—Canada, etc.—to protect people and countries from, generally speaking, what used to be the Soviet Union. Now it’s Russia.

And I say that’s fine, but you would think they’d be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren’t.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the prime minister—I guess he’s no longer there, maybe because of this; it was a very unpopular thing he did—said, “No, we’ll help after the war is over.”

I said, “I don’t need that kind of help.” We didn’t need any help at all.

In a way, I was testing people. I was testing to see whether or not they’d be there because I’ve long said that we help them, but I’m not sure they’d be there for us.

Italy turned us down, Germany turned us down, and France turned us down. It’s OK, but why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars if they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them.

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World leaders know how to buy off Trump with trinkets

Trump: The president has done an incredible job. Just landing at the airport—to see such a beautiful airport and to have a building named after me. I was very happy about that

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Andy_Ross said:
Q: Are you gonna sell F-35s to Turkey, and what about the legal restrictions?

TRUMP: Why wouldn't we do that?
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For the same reasons they haven't been allowed to buy them previously. You could ask your air force to explain. Turkey bought Russian AA missile systems, and operators of F-35 would rather not have S-300 radars trained on recognising what the exact profile of an F-35 looks like.
 
Trump to Erdogan: You've been a great leader and a respected leader all over the world. We've had right from the beginning good chemistry. We've had a very special relationship

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Trump on his relationship with Erdogan: Sometimes you get along with the toughest people like him, and sometimes you don't get along with the weakest, most pathetic people. You just don't get along. Maybe you don't respect them

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