Trump's Secret Strategy for Nato

President Donald Trump again offended NATO allies at the Brussels summit. European leaders said they were prepared for a bad summit, but expressed Trump doing it even worse than they were afraid.

Annual tensions have been an opportunity to reconfirm unity among close friends, to work privately to resolve disputes, and to imagine an alliance whose success in preserving peace and prosperity is unmatched.

Then came Trump, who messed up the summit, claiming that America's allies are taking advantage of the United States, distorting facts, and doing their best to echo social media disputes. That raises the question, what exactly is Trump trying to do?

If you analyze Trump's words, he's just trying to restrain the Allies from abusing the power of America. He wants them to pay more for their own protection. He can even argue that his goal is to make NATO stronger. But a closer look at the facts suggests Trump is trying to achieve just the opposite.

The president seems to be trying to break up NATO. He's overreacting and distorting financial facts, and he's doing it out loud, that he seems to be preparing his supporters at home for a decision that will shake the world, and make it a much more dangerous place: withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Alliance. That, in fact, would destroy NATO.

By chance, this would constitute a triumph for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, who has publicly declared it clearly, that it would be very good for Russia if NATO would split “”. In Brussels, Trump attacked the Allies of America, falsely saying they were “that were the most harmful”, and accusing Germany of being a “hostage to Russia”, due to a gas pipeline connecting both countries.

Defence spending issues, and natural gas supplies from Russia deserved discussion at the summit, but this public critic, with television cameras in the hall, was not meant to solve problems, but to increase the message he wanted to deliver.

No wonder Trump posted a video on Titeter. He's trying to turn Americans against NATO. Either he doesn't understand how NATO works or he is trying to manipulate public opinion with dangerous lies.

It's hard to say which is worse. Allies are not perpetrators, and the United States does not pay any costs on their behalf. Members have reached an agreement under which they must spend 2 percent of their GDP on defence, and that they will seek to achieve that goal by 2024.

The United States has urged Europe to increase its defence spending, and the trend began to improve under Barak Obama. But Trump is making it sound like the United States is paying other people's dues. And that's a fake.

It is noteworthy again that America is benefiting and advancing from peace and stability in Europe, as well as the leadership of the strongest military alliance in the world. And American defense expenses, they're not all to protect Europe. These include military costs in Afghanistan, South Korea, all seas, and wages and financial benefits from military troops around the world.

Trump has shown that nothing will satisfy him. No level of defence spending will be enough, because what he really wants is to withdraw from the alliance. NATO leaders were shocked when Trump suddenly told them he wants them to spend 4 on

percent of their GDP for protection, suddenly doubling the threshold they are struggling to reach.

He claimed that the US itself spend more than 4 per cent of GDP on defence, which according to NATO's latest figures are false. The United States is expected to spend about 3.5 percent of GDP this year. Should the West really spend $1 trillion on defense? This is absurd.

The United States and its allies suddenly launch more than all other countries combined. Russia spent only $61 billion last year on defence, China is spending $175 billion on 2018. NATO allies, excluding the United States, are already spending more than Russia or China.

Together, American allies already spend about $1 trillion in defense, perhaps more than enough to deal with the most aggressive enemies. The United States spent $623 billion. Of course, Trump refused to say that Putin is an enemy.

So if Russia is just a “competition”, as he called it, why should the Atlantic Alliance spend $1 trillion on defence? The answer is that there is no need. Trump is creating only obstacles to unity and possibly to NATO's survival.

America's European partners have already significantly increased their defence expenses. Secretary - General NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, said 8 countries would achieve or exceed the 2 per cent threshold this year, down from only 3 per cent in 2014. They are doing this not only because of Trump's pressure, but because they are concerned about Russia.

They saw Putin send his forces to Ukraine, and stole the Crimea. When they see Trump flirting with Putin, their fear of Russia grows dramatically. And they're not just Russia's neighbors. Anxiety extends to the United States and even to the closest advisers of Trump.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to be begging his boss to respect the alliance. Perhaps hoping Trump would read his prayer, he wrote in Titter:” NATO is the most successful alliance in history... weakness provokes, force and cohesion protect...”.

And on Tuesday, the Senate adopted with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, a resolution reaffirming US commitment to NATO. For the Republicans, this is a vote of courage. The Democrats were more direct, naming “icled” “insulting and denigration” that Trump made to Germany, accusing the president of being more loyal to Putin than to US allies in NATO.

Trump's diplomatic tour has only begun. The show he gave at NATO headquarters was a warning. After a strong fist in the face of America's friends, within days it will be time to embrace the “competition” of America, the Russian president who is acting as an enemy of the United States and its friends, and who is no doubt enjoying Trump's conduct entirely in Brussels.

CNN, translated by the World.al