One of the biggest disagreements of the Trump era, even between members of the right, was how to handle our traditional, European allies. For decades, countries like Germany had refused to pay their pledged amount to NATO while they turned around and spent gobs of money to bolster their welfare programs. Trump took a different approach, absconding from playing nice and instead putting pressure on our allies to help provide for their own defense.

A new poll shows, in my opinion, that Trump was dead on in his pursuit.

55% of French, and 53% of Germans say "I don't know".
when asked who they would prefer Europe to side with in the increasing competition for economic and technological dominance between the US and China. pic.twitter.com/43mfu6CXko

— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) May 28, 2021

You want to know why I’m not nearly as bullish on NATO as I once was (and that’s true for a lot of Republicans)? It’s because these European countries continue to do things that completely contradict the idea that they need us to defend them.

Take the Nordstream 2 pipeline. The Germans are demanding we pay for the lion’s share of NATO’s costs to defend them from Russia while they simultaneously subjugate themselves to Russia for their energy needs. On what planet does that make sense? Because it’s certainly not this one. The basis of any defense is not handing your enemy the ability to destroy you from within.

Dealing with China follows the same logic. How is it even a question of who Europe should “side with” in regards to the technological battle between the U.S. and the communists? But if that’s going to be the attitude, then perhaps Germany and France can call up China and see how much they’d like to contribute to NATO?

Europeans have grown fat and lazy, assuming the U.S. will always be there while they turn around and spit in our faces over a variety of issues. We can’t even count on them to oppose Iran, China, or Russia at this point. Why exactly are we spending billions of dollars on people who despise us? Yeah, yeah, I know, the world order and all that. But perhaps a little tough love would get the Europeans back in the right frame of mind?

This is an issue that isn’t going away nor should it. Blind devotion to allies that continually chose to not act like allies is not virtuous. It’s just being a sucker.