On Special Report, anchor Mike Emanuel opened a panel discussion about Donald Trump’s hideous harangue against Germany and NATO earlier today by saying, “President Trump giving NATO and Germany, specifically, a little tough love.”
Immediately afterward, charts were displayed showing that the U.S. has contributed more to NATO than other countries. It was a not-so-subtle way of validating Trump’s rant and, just as importantly, whitewashing his unhinged attack by painting it as something rational.
“That will give you a little sense of why the president went over there with a little tough message,” Emanuel added. Later, he called Trump’s diatribe “must-see TV.”
Of course, nobody mentioned that Trump’s rant surely delighted Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was also shockingly ignorant or dishonest. Trump ridiculously claimed that Germany is “totally controlled by Russia.” Project much, Comrade Trump?
On the panel was Trump’s unofficial media monitor, Mollie Hemingway. She just so happened to echo Trump’s attacks when she said about NATO, “It’s really interesting. They claim that they view Russia as this huge threat but they don’t spend money as if they view Russia as a huge threat.”
Panelist Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, seemed not to notice or care that Fox was acting as if Trump had not behaved recklessly. She ignored the blatant propaganda and spoke as a very serious person. “I think what makes this different” from previous American presidents’ positions “is the president’s tone,” she said. “It’s so much more disruptive.” She mildly added that it has raised “questions” and “concern” among even Republicans that Trump “is not conveying support for this alliance that has served us well for seven decades.”
Gee, ya think?
Conservative Jonah Goldberg was a bit stronger: “If you look at almost every single multilateral institution that the United States has been a part of, most of which it helped build and create, he seems to have a lot of animosity for all of them.” And yet, Goldberg, noted, Trump seems to have no “end game” to replace anything he is ripping apart.
At that point, Emanuel acknowledged that he has visited Afghanistan several times and “there have been NATO troops serving alongside our men and women making sacrifices.” He said there are concerns over Trump's lack of gratitude toward NATO.
That prompted Hemingway to pipe up with some more Trumpsplaining. “The burden of proof, at this point, is on people who think that NATO is doing a good job,” she said. She claimed that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO “hasn’t really had a mission that has made sense.” She couldn’t have made Trump happier when she said that we have other interests around the world and, therefore, NATO “can’t be the priority that it was.”
Page had a good rejoinder here. She shot back that Russia has “given NATO a new agenda” with its “proxy war in Ukraine,” its “meddling in western elections” and its “assassination attempts” in Great Britain. She said pointedly that the rest of NATO is unified in concern about Russia’s behavior. “And we’re gonna see at the summit in Helsinki on Monday whether the president shares some of those concerns.”
I don’t think we need to wait to know that he doesn’t.
Watch Fox pretend Trump has not harmed U.S. national interests below, from the July 11, 2018 Special Report.
The reality is that Pence’s ignorant spokesman normally has these public tantrums and most sane people have learned to simply ignore him. There’s no point in discussing how wrong he is or how much he lies – that’s just enabling him further.
And this last tantrum is just another version of his shameful display in the last G7 meeting where he pouted like a three year old. And it’s just another extension of his Montenegro Shove from last year.
The smartest thing the NATO group could do at this point would be to censure the US until such time as we have competent leadership that understands international issues.
As for Fox News, they’ll be digging out of this mess for decades. They already had no credibility – now they will be stuck with this albatross around their necks.
Trump’s ‘statistics’ on German energy dependence on Russia are his typical gross exaggerations – lies. I’ve never seen a human consistently mistake ‘facts’ like The Donald. Fox News should call him on it this time and every time.
Trying to prop up Trump Fox News provides a graphic of America spending 3.5% on defense – more than anyone else. Trump has even upped the target from 2% to 4% which indicates he plans to bloat our defense budget even larger and wants others to follow. But why?
America alone is outspending our foes like China and Russia (I believe combined) on defense. What’s the point in our NATO allies overspending on defense which will force them to divert scarce resources from more productive endeavors? Rather than picking some arbitrary GDP percentage as a target why not actually pick troop and material targets? We simply want to cobble together a well trained force capable of handling Russia and any other foreseeable foe. We don’t need a bloated, gold plated military just to meet some GDP percentage Trump pulled out of his ass.