from Rogue Money:

“NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.” – Richard Sakwa

The legacy media focused on Trump’s brushing off the newly elected Prime Minister of NATO’s newest member state, Dusko Markovic, en route to shake the hands of the alliance’s general secretary, Norwegian politician Jens Stoltenberg. But the smile on Mr. Markovic’s face, representing as it did the freedom-loving aspirations of the Montenegrin people (for which the fictional Major Jay Gatsby fought the Kaiser’s Germany and unofficial U.S. foreign policy proconsul Sen. John McCain berated Sen. Rand Paul on the Senate floor as an agent of Vladimir Putin) belied taking offense. Nor did Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the only office holding EU politician to effectively predict and endorse Trump’s otherwise shocking November win, hold back on the grins. All breathed easier in Brussels, knowing that Montenegro, with its 2,000 man army smaller almost by half than the Dallas (Texas) Police Department, and its 600,000 souls were safe from Russian aggression — at least not of the aggressive Adriatic Sea front real estate-buying variety.

The look on their faces is priceless. #NATOObsolete #AmericaFirst #Trump #POTUSAbroad #NATO #Europe pic.twitter.com/HTa6P7hbB8

— Aldin Abazović (@CT_operative) May 25, 2017

The real #AmericaFirst like a boss #MAGA smackdown would come later, during a speech dedicating a piece of steel from the destroyed on 9/11 World Trade Center. That was when Trump effectively lectured the squinting faces of NATO’s national leaders, stating 23 of NATO 28 member nations fail to meet their commitment to spend 2% of their domestic products on defense. As Mr. Stoltenberg maintained a stoic Scandinavian stare into the distance, Trump not only dressed down those who failed to pay “what they should be paying”, Trump also claimed that such a thing as NATO arrears exist, those same defense spending ‘debts’ dreaded and denounced by the entire German political and media class when Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the White House earlier this year.

I have a feeling Steve Bannon was behind this. I really do not like Steve Bannon. https://t.co/ymcDQ7rPsu #SteveBannon #trump #merkeltrump

— Chris van Dijk (@stubbornwaves) March 27, 2017

All of which is a fancy Russian Analyst way of saying, the President humiliated the tough on ‘Russian aggression’ but weak on defending borders from actual invaders Merkel, the newly elected and tough guy handshaking Emanuelle Macron, and the other European pols present. That is, those whose rhetoric and media coverage gained so much mileage from attempting to Stump the Trump.

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