Germany Just Responded to Trump’s Attack, Embarrassed Him
The patience of our staunchest allies on the international stage has finally run-out. Over the weekend, British, NATO, and now German officials have all gone public with harsh, unequivocal rebukes of President Trump’s recent statements on everything from so-called wire-taps, to NATO dues, and to his continued lies about President Obama.
On Saturday morning, Trump took to Twitter to try to deflect and distract from his embarrassing display along side German Chancellor Angela Merkel the day before, attempting to re-focus the public’s attention on Germany’s alleged NATO delinquency. But unlike Republicans and the American Media, Germany was not about to let his unsubstantiated claims stand.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen hit his credibility with a knock-out blow when she stated flatly that, “There is no [German] debt account at NATO,” alluding to Trump’s absolute ignorance about how NATO works.
She also added that, “German defense spending also goes into U.N. peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against terrorism.”
This wasn’t the only NATO-related beat-down Trump sustained this weekend. Within minutes of his Twitter tirade Saturday morning, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, unleashed a 9 part retaliatory strike on Trump in what amounted to a public scolding of the President and a humiliating lecture on how exactly NATO funding works.
All of this comes on the heels of British officials on Friday flatly rejecting the White House’s assertions that their intelligence services aided President Obama in conducting surveillance at Trump Tower:
“Recent allegations about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
The public slamming by the German Defense Minister looks like the nail in the coffin for one of the worst weekends in Trump’s short presidency. It also shows that the Germans are truly willing to show zero tolerance for any world leader who uses lies and creates enemies to advance a radical, unpopular agenda. If anyone knows what an aspiring authoritarian dictator looks like when they see one, it’s Germany.
