Of course he was criticized for these remarks in 2018 but they don’t seem so crazy now, do they?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/trump-germany-russia-captive-nato/index.html

Of course he was criticized for these remarks in 2018 but they don’t seem so crazy now, do they?

I would encourage everyone to watch the full video of his remarks at this NATO summit. Looking back now this all seems very accurate and very relevant. Its interesting MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch claimed that Trump was owned by Putin, yet Trump attempted to talk NATO into not buying and fully relying on Russian oil.

Romney and Trump have been proven to be right on Russia, while Obama and Biden allowed Putin to run free in Europe. Obama and Biden allowed and never questioned our allies and their dealings with Russia.

In a CNN interview German Defense Minister stated that they had “a very diverse mix of energy supplies” and said that German chancellor Merkel had “been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to curb Russian aggression in Ukraine”.

Is it fair to say Merkel was NOT successful in curbing Russian aggression? and that importing 35% (that’s over a third) of their gas from Russia in 2015 helped fund their current war? This article also states German imports of Russian gas has risen and we can only assume it continued to rise. Russia was building a pipeline for goodness' sake!

Direct Quotes

President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused fellow NATO ally Germany of being beholden to Russia because it buys energy from Moscow, in pointed remarks ahead of a summit of the military alliance in Brussels.

“Germany is a captive of Russia,” Trump said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, his first since arriving in the Belgian capital. “It’s very inappropriate.”

Trump went on to complain that the United States is expected to “defend them against Russia,” despite Germany making “billions of dollars” in energy payments to Moscow.

“I think it’s something that NATO has to look at,” Trump said. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia.”

Trump’s comments were a remarkable criticism for a US president to make about a close US ally and is likely to increase tensions between the US and its European allies.

Trump fired back: “How can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group that you want protection against?”

Trump rejected Stoltenberg’s argument, saying Germany is “making Russia richer”

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen preemptively rebuffed concerns about any German “dependency” on Russia in a Tuesday interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, saying Germany has “a very diverse mix of energy supplies.” Leyen also noted that Merkel has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to curb Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Germany imports roughly 94% of its natural gas. In 2015, 35% of imported gas came from Russia, while 34% was sourced from Norway and 29% from the Netherlands. But German imports of Russian gas have risen in recent years, according to experts.

Plans for a new gas pipeline that would bypass Ukraine, the Nord Stream 2, have been in the works for years, but the project remains controversial. Germany argues that the new pipeline would provide more energy security.

#USA #TheChubbyCaucasianChristianClosetedConservative #Trump #Russia #NATO