US Election & Presidency

they were not squirming they were laughing at him

(26-05-2017 11:11 )HannahsPet Wrote:  they were not squirming they were laughing at him

When he was telling them to pay up, they were deffo looking major uncomfortable.

The thing is Trump refuses to understand how NATO funding actually works. All members have agreed to meet the 2% of GDP target over the next few years but they don't give it to NATO - its what they spend on their military. His statement that it is unfair on US taxpayers is absolute bollocks.

What has been less widely reported is that he refused to give his backing to Article 5 which is that if one NATO member is attacked the others will defend it. Russia will love that.

I see he also revealed he had 2 nuclear subs near North Korea when he was showing off to Duterte the Philipine President (look his list of Human Rights abuses up and you get a good idea of what a shit Trump is if he thinks he's great)

^^yeah it was uncomfortable. trump seems to think that this 2% of gdp is a law. it's not, it's a guideline and target. nato's main reason for being was to stop nuclear proliferation in smaller european countries. if the usa want to have most of the nukes, they should accept most of the burden to protect the smaller countries from outside aggressors. here's a list of figures from 2016:

Here's a breakdown of each country's contribution, based on 2016 figures provided by NATO:

United States, 3.61%.

Greece, 2.38%.

Britain, 2.21%.

Estonia, 2.16%.

Poland, 2%.

France, 1.78%.

Turkey, 1.56%.

Norway, 1.54%.

Lithuania, 1.49%.

Romania, 1.48%.

Latvia, 1.45%.

Portugal, 1.38%.

Bulgaria, 1.35%.

Croatia, 1.23%.

Albania, 1.21%.

Germany, 1.19%.

Denmark, 1.17%.

Netherlands, 1.17%.

Slovakia, 1.16%.

Italy, 1.11%.

Czech Republic, 1.04%.

Hungary, 1.01%.

Canada, 0.99%.

Slovenia, 0.94%.

Spain, 0.91%.

Belgium, 0.85%.

Luxembourg, 0.44%.

source: http://uk.businessinsider.com/nato-share...try-2017-2

so yeah it was uncomfortable, but only because they all knew he didn't understand what the fuck he was talking about.

He also had a dig at the German trade surplus with the USA.
"The Germans are very, very evil/bad", Trump complains to Juncker.

(26-05-2017 11:34 )SecretAgent Wrote:  The thing is Trump refuses to understand how NATO funding actually works. All members have agreed to meet the 2% of GDP target over the next few years but they don't give it to NATO - its what they spend on their military. His statement that it is unfair on US taxpayers is absolute bollocks.

What has been less widely reported is that he refused to give his backing to Article 5 which is that if one NATO member is attacked the others will defend it. Russia will love that.

I see he also revealed he had 2 nuclear subs near North Korea when he was showing off to Duterte the Philipine President (look his list of Human Rights abuses up and you get a good idea of what a shit Trump is if he thinks he's great)

Now i know nothing about this.

This 2%, is this the TOTAL they spend? including taking into account what each country is spending on their own military? which could then be made available to NATO as and when the need arises?

Do all these countries meet this 2% therefore?

If he is totally wrong on every little last thing he openes his mouth about, what about his advisers? surely they are as much if not more to blame.

If all those countries in Terence list ARE meeting their 2%, should somebody, including the countries that he is attacking, merely tell him about this?

See, this is very confusing, becasue everywhere I'ver seen or heard anyhting about this, radio, news etc, they all say that only 5 countries or so meet this 2%. I hgave never heard anybody say (apart from here) how wrong Trump actually is over this debt, most seem to actually agree with his assesment.

But I have paid very little interest to it so I may have missed it.

What I find ironic, is how on earth is Greece meeting their 2% comitment.

^^ Trump is correct that only 5 NATO members currently meet the 2% of GDP spend on Defence BUT they don't give it to NATO and they have all agreed over the next few years to meet the 2% target. He has been told and it was said when Merkel met him at the White House that she explained this to him repeatedly.

He's just too dumb to accept it.

(26-05-2017 12:08 )SecretAgent Wrote:  ^^ Trump is correct that only 5 NATO members currently meet the 2% of GDP spend on Defence BUT they don't give it to NATO and they have all agreed over the next few years to meet the 2% target. He has been told and it was said when Merkel met him at the White House that she explained this to him repeatedly.

He's just too dumb to accept it.

So this 2% is anually? Each and every year 2% has to be paid?

So over the next however many years the others will aim to meet this and pay what they already owe?

(26-05-2017 11:57 )wackawoo Wrote:  What I find ironic, is how on earth is Greece meeting their 2% comitment.

Greece does not trust it's neighbour Turkey. Ever since Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974 Greece has maintained a high level of defence spending.