I had thought my post on Sunday would be the last thing I would have to write about why I won’t be voting for Donald Trump for president. I was wrong. I read an article about Mr. Trump’s meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post yesterday morning. Then I read the transcript – because I couldn’t believe what I read in the article. But it was true.
Sometimes in transcripts, things are a little jumbled and muddled. However, the substance of what Mr. Trump was saying, or rather the lack of substance, was very clear.
“Look, I see NATO as a good thing to have – I look at the Ukraine situation and I say, so Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we are doing all of the lifting, they’re not doing anything. And I say, why is it that Germany is not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of the Ukraine not dealing with – why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially the third world war, okay, with Russia? Why are we always the ones that are doing it? And I think the concept of NATO is good, but I do think the United States has to have some help. We are not helped. I’ll give you a better example than that. I mean, we pay billions – hundreds of billions of dollars to supporting other countries that are in theory wealthier than we are.”
A little later he added this:
“No, I don’t want to pull it out. NATO was set up at a different time. NATO was set up when we were a richer country. We’re not a rich country. We’re borrowing, we’re borrowing all of this money. … But things are a much different thing. NATO is costing us a fortune and yes, we’re protecting Europe but we’re spending a lot of money. Number 1, I think the distribution of costs has to be changed. I think NATO as a concept is good, but it is not as good as it was when it first evolved. And I think we bear the, you know, not only financially, we bear the biggest brunt of it. Obama has been stronger on the Ukraine than all the other countries put together, and those other countries right next door to the Ukraine. And I just say we have, I’m not even knocking it, I’m just saying I don’t think it’s fair, we’re not treated fair.”
As I said, a little muddled. More importantly, however, there is virtually no substance here, other than a complaint that other countries aren’t being fair to us. And this on a subject it shouldn’t be hard to have some substance on. But even more than the lack of substance, what he says about Ukraine:
“Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we are doing all of the lifting, they’re not doing anything. And I say, why is it that Germany is not dealing with NATO on Ukraine?”
is just wrong. It was Angela Merkel, along with François Hollande, who negotiated the Minsk and Minsk II agreements to try to stop to the fighting in eastern Ukraine. To say Germany was “not dealing” with the situation in Ukraine is completely wrong. It is also an indication that he really doesn’t know what is going on in that part of the world. Also, in spite of what he says, President Obama has not been “stronger … than all the other countries put together”. In fact, my opinion at the time the Minsk agreement and then Minsk II were being negotiated by Angela Merkel and François Hollande, was that the U.S. was not doing enough.1
When I read these comments, and then think of all the good the United States has accomplished around the world since the end of World War II, and how we have been able to get other countries to work with us to do this good, I get depressed. To think that somebody this uninformed could not only get the Republican nomination for president but might actually get elected in November is more than distressing. It is worrying and dangerous.
I have previously said I will not vote for Donald Trump for president. Things like this make me think I might even have to vote for whomever his opponent is – to make sure Mr. Trump does not win.
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1 See “Russia Has Invaded Ukraine” (August 23, 2014) and “Defending NATO by Supplying Ukraine” (February 6, 2015).
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