Former President Donald Trump said last Saturday he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” if it attacked a NATO country that didn't pay enough for defense.
On Wednesday, Trump doubled down at a rally in South Carolina, saying:
One of the heads of the countries said, ‘Does that mean that if we don’t pay the bills, that you’re not going to protect us?’ That’s exactly what it means. I’m not going to protect you.
As Democrats and their lapdog media launched into histrionic fits over Trump's comments, the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister, likely the next NATO Secretary-General, said in effect: "Calm the hell down."
And Prime Minister Mark Rutte was admonishing other European NATO leaders, no less. During the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Rutte bluntly said:
We should stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump. It's up to the Americans. I'm not an American, I cannot vote in the U.S. We have to work with whoever is on the dance floor.
Contrary to the hyperbolic histrionics on the left, there was wisdom in Rutte's admonition.
As I wrote on Friday in defense of the former president, Trump has made over-the-top hyperbolic comments since he announced his first White House run in June 2015 — and he's going to continue making them. It's Trump. It's part of the package. What the TDS-riddle crowd "forgets" is he never follows through on his grandiose statements. In other words, he makes them for effect only.
The Dutch Prime Minister not only gets that; he's also wise enough to know that if Trump wins in November, he's NATO's dance partner come hell or high water — whether European leaders like it or not.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who will step down in October, according to Reuters, blasted Trump for his comments, which he said undermine NATO.
The whole idea of NATO is that an attack on one ally will trigger a response from the whole alliance, and as long as we stand behind that message together, we prevent any military attack on any ally.
Any suggestion that we are not standing up for each other, that we are not going to protect each other, that does undermine the security of all of us.
While Trump's comments weren't the wisest, he did get NATO's attention — which was his intention. Again, Trump's Trump — but there's no way in hell that the United States would stand idly by while Russia or any other adversary of the West attacked a NATO country.
Also again: Biden's Biden.
Biden had the intestinal fortitude to call Trump's comments "un-American." Same Biden who has intentionally undermined the security of the United States since the first day he shuffled into the Oval Office as president of the United States.
After finally realizing that a majority of Americans name his illegal alien invasion as their number-one concern about his miserable presidency, the buck-passer-in-chief first tried to blame Trump and congressional Republicans, and he now continues to insist (lie) that he doesn't have the unilateral authority to close the border.
So Joe Biden — of all people — calling anyone "un-American" could not be more obscene.
The Bottom Line
While many on our side of the aisle would prefer that Donald Trump tone down incendiary rhetoric a tad, that's not going to happen. So the fence-sitters among us have one of three choices come November:
One: Sit this one out, which would, in my not-so-humble opinion, be a fool's game.
Two: Vote for Biden — or whomever the Democrats ultimately nominate. Yeah, that would be insane.
Three: Vote for Trump, even if he's not your optimal candidate.
I assume the right choice is obvious.
Related:
New York Times Stunned After 11 Out of 13 Independent Focus Group Voters Choose Trump Over Biden
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