The Rod Martin Report

The Rod Martin Report

Share this post

The Rod Martin Report
The Rod Martin Report
Trump to NATO: Stop the Freeloading!
Geopolitics, Tech & Markets

Trump to NATO: Stop the Freeloading!

He's definitely not wrong.

Rod D. Martin's avatar
Rod D. Martin
Jul 27, 2016
∙ Paid

Share this post

The Rod Martin Report
The Rod Martin Report
Trump to NATO: Stop the Freeloading!
Share

by Rod D. Martin
July 27, 2016

So Donald Trump had the temerity to question our disproportionate funding of NATO again. And everyone's going bonkers.

The Newsmax headline (and Newsmax tends to be pretty pro-Trump) reads: "Trump: Can't Go Into World War III for NATO Allies Who Don't Pay." That's one of the friendlier ledes.

Even many conservatives are horrified. But stop yourself and consider. People are hearing "we're not fighting World War III for our NATO Allies." But they're not hearing the rest of the statement, which is "we WILL fight for them if they'll stop freeloading."

In other words, Trump is demanding we stop giving welfare to Europe.

Europe's economy is almost as large as America's: these are not the Marshall Plan years. And yet America foots 73% of the alliance's total bill (as even the Washington Post admits, grudgingly), and many of the alliance's 28 members are such freeloaders that even Obama has called them out for it.

Nor is Trump identifying a new problem. This has always…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Rod D. Martin
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share