Trump wants allies to pay for protection
By LEONID BERSHIDSKY | Bloomberg | Published: July 9, 2018
It’s increasingly clear that U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t really confused about how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s funding really works. Rather, he doesn’t care, because he wants a different global security system from the current one. In Trump’s vision, the U.S. is a global enforcer who will only protect those who pay for it.
Trump’s July 4 tweet demanding that the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries lower the oil price because “the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s†shows that this isn’t just about NATO. Trump’s U.S. doesn’t have allies or even vassals. It has paying customers for its security business, the way the principality of Hesse did in the 18th century, when it rented out its oversized professional army to Sweden, Britain, Bavaria and pretty much anyone who could pay for it.
https://www.stripes.com/opinion/trump-wants-allies-to-pay-for-protection-1.536745
