@AriFleischer Stop supporting the demented actions of a mad king, ffs. None of this needed to happen. You don't have to lash out at everyone else for refusing to enable Trump's insanity.
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Juggler
7.9K posts
My message here clearly struck a nerve. A few friends from when I was press secretary, domestically and abroad, don’t like what I said. Instead of seeing how Western European nations must change, they just want to attack Trump.
The reason it struck a nerve is because they recognize that this time NATO nations are being held to account. They know they’ve come up short for decades and by denying us overflight rights, they’ve gone too far. Americans are fed up, especially with France and Spain. Trump won’t stand for it and they know it. They now fear the consequences of their inaction.
The UK, unlike its days under Thatcher or Blair, is wishy-washy. They’ve often been a good allie, but this time they want to sit it out and have it both ways. We can use their bases, but only for limited operations. At least the UK spends real money on defense.
France, Spain, and Italy are another story. So too is Canada. None of these four contribute seriously to NATO. They’re laggards, trying to get away with it. Spain and France force our pilots to fly thousands of miles out of the way (I thought they didn’t like carbon footprints) en route to Iran.
Eastern Europe is a different story. They spend more on defense and they understand power. They lived under Soviet domination and recognize weakness when they see it. They won’t be weak.
Western European governments, especially France, are good at issuing communiques and statements. They enjoy hosting conferences. They love to ponder deeply. Getting them to act is another matter, unless it’s to purchase Russian LNG, which they still do.
The world is changing. Out of this war will come a new group of younger nations that understand real power and the importance of strength. The UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Eastern Europe will emerge stronger than ever. Western Europe will continue to fall behind.
As for Trump, you don’t have to like him. He often says things none of his predecessors would say. But don’t underestimate the fact that US taxpayers are fed up with nations that don’t pull their weight, and then force our pilots to take risks and longer flights so we can rid the world from the menace that is Iran.
Today’s Western European leaders would rather mollify Iran and pay them ransoms (trade) than support the US.
Things are different today. We all know it.
The UK, France, Spain and Italy (despite its Prime Minister) have earned the consequences that will unfold.
They could have and should have supported us. Not as a NATO alliance. But as individual free nations.
All we wanted was overflight rights and full access to airfields.
They’ve made their choices. Soon, they’ll see the results.
Ari Fleischer@AriFleischer
When this is over, the western part of NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out, as they too often have a history of doing. Eastern European nations are the heart of NATO. They spend money on defense, know how to fight and love the US. France particularly deserves fault and blame. From supporting China and Russia at the UN to denying Americans overflight rights, they’re doing what they’ve always done - showing weakness, while cutting deals with terrorists. (The reason the US has a Marine Corps and Navy is unlike France, we refused to pay a ransom to the Barbary Pirates. France is always happy to cut a deal.) Wars have unintended consequences as nations show their true colors. NATO will never be the same, and Western European weakness and acquiescence is the cause.
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@jimmyfailla Trump has said that there are dead people walking around with no arms and legs. If Biden had said anything as remotely demented as that, it would have been headline stuff on every right leani g media outlet for weeks. Your president is mentally incompetent.
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Can’t believe Trump told Iran to “open the fuckin’ straight.” I miss normal times when Biden would say things like “sfddghhhkjjjytssghtmn.”
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@ArthurLHerman Vassals of America, led by an erratic, mentally unstable geriatric... or vassals of China, led by a pragmatic and reasonable leader. Hmm.
Until you guys went insane, this was an easy decision. Not so much now.
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European nations face two choices.
Partners of the US; or vassals of China.
The notion that there is some path as "middle power" is a dangerous fantasy.
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@KurtSchlichter You know when you were told that Trump's alienation of allies was a stupid idea that would leave the US without allies, and you guys scoffed? Yeah. That. You twats created a problem then bitch about there being a problem. Idiots.
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The Europeans are not dealing with “a man.” They are dealing with the United States of America.
The United States needed the most innocuous kind of cooperation from them. They denied the United States that cooperation.
The implied argument is that their obligations within our alliance depend on whether they like the guy we chose as our president. “Sure, we’re allies…if we approve of who you elected.”
Nope.
We are not going to forget, and we’re not going to forgive. I’m indifferent to their excuses or their rationalizations. The United States of America needed their help and not very much help. They turned us down. That changes everything. And they aren’t going to like how it changes everything.
Gerard Baker@gerardtbaker
The casuistry here is remarkable. This is the simple reality: Like most Americans, most Europeans think this war is a bad idea.Their governments are being asked to take a huge risk by a man who has proved unreliable, volatile and intemperate over and over. Who would do that?
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So, Iran was absolutely close to having a nuke (as it has been confirmed they had large amounts of 60% enriched uranium) and they had secret ICBM capabilities that could allow them to reach out to London or Paris… why hasn’t the EU and UK publicly thanked us for saving them once again?
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@PeterMeijer If the US was feeling attacked by Iran, then they could have invoked article 5. And NATO allies would - once again - have come to their aid. Despite the current leadership attempt g to destroy all US alliances. But they didn't. They just bombed Iran because Israel wanted it.
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It would behoove our NATO allies to appreciate that this sentiment is *very* widely shared, including amongst erstwhile boosters of trans-Atlantic relations.
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@DrewPavlou This'll blow your tiny mind - it's possible to provide humanitarian aid to the people of a country who are suffering without actually supporting the regime leading that country. Humanitarian aid to Gaza did not equate to support for Hamas either.
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Cuba completely supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is suffocating the minds of the entire European political class, from the far-left to the center to the far-right
European Commission@EU_Commission
The EU stands with the people of Cuba in their hour of need. We are stepping up our humanitarian aid to Cuba to help deliver food and safe drinking water, and to provide logistical support to humanitarian partners delivering urgent relief to the most vulnerable. link.europa.eu/hBTCqM
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@shaankuree This is no longer the 90s. China has far surpassed Germany.
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Mention one thing the EU is better at than the US and China.
Frid 🇪🇺🦌@Frid45
United we stand, divided we fall. For a united and strong Europe. 🇪🇺
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@AMCbiggums @AFpost These people are fucking weird. What’s it going to take for us to have leaders that aren’t greedy weird fucks?
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@Real_Politik101 NATO would do what NATO does - come to the defence of an attacked member. Just as happened when the US became the only member to invoke article 5 back in 2001. You lying imbecile.
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If China somehow invades the United States, you think Europe will come to our defense? Zero chance. They’d be forming closer ties with China throwing us under the bus.
But they demand we do the reverse. I mean they’re so scared of even Iran and their missiles lmfao cuz they’re THAT WEAK. This is a terrible arrangement. LEAVE NATO.
Department of State@StateDept
🚨 SECRETARY RUBIO: If NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, then that’s not a very good arrangement. That’s a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States.
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@Acyn @patriottakes Well …
Clearly their before meeting prayer meant nothing. Whatever God they pray to has to be seriously frustrated with them at this point.
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Reporter: Why is the president advocating potentially for a war crime and how do you square that with the US saying it does not target civilians?
Leavitt: Their best move is to make a deal or else the United States armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination
Reporter: Including potential war crimes?
Leavitt: With respect to achieving the full objectives, the president is going to move forward…
Reporter: Which of those objectives would destroying a desalination plant most help?
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@GW3post I actually kind of agree with you…our difference is that I’m mildly encouraged that he does it considerably less than Biden or Obama..but I see your point..
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@baren_nick @philthatremains Exactly - china's is not ideologically pure communism, it's pragmatic communism. It's communism in a globally capitalist economy, in which the only way to thrive is to adopt capitalist characteristics.
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@philthatremains It's both
Economies are not either capitalist or socialist. Every economy is some mixture of both.
Obviously many Americans associate the amount of gov control China has over the economy with "communism," which is why the right can hardly use the word "China" w/o the modifier
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the most absolutely retarded take one can have. if it were not for China opening markets in the 70s they would still be an agrarian society barely able to feed its population.
Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸@jacksonhinklle
🚨🇨🇳 China is the MOST advanced country on Earth, thanks to Communism.
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Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, applied martial law and military trials to civilian dissenters, & shut down opposition newspapers
Wilson applied the Sedition act to criminalize war opposition, jailed dissenters for 'disloyal' speech, waged the first 'red scare' raids against/expulsions of communists
FDR interned the Japanese, setup small-f fascist state control of the economy (price-fixing, quotas, 'Blue Eagle' economic loyalty-tests & enforcement), stayed in power till death
Marco Foster@MarcoFoster_
Jane Fonda: “This is the first time in the history of the US that an authoritarian regime has broken through. Worldwide historians who study these things all agree it has never happened so fast in any industrialized democracy. He is moving to consolidate very very fast which means right now we have to use the tools we have to stop it”
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@AriFleischer Idiot American right winger failing to understand what socialism is, as well as still thinking Sanders is socialist.
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I’m reliably told he routinely flys first class.
Socialism works well for hypocrites.
C3@C_3C_3
Bernie “First Class” Sanders flying to 1 of his 3 homes. Fight the Oligarchy!
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@HansMahncke Do you suppose Europe would have 'failed the test' if Trump hadn't spent the last year alienating allies, to the hooting approval of his idiot cultists?
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It’s genuinely hard to understand why this is so difficult for people to grasp, other than sheer Trump derangement. Trump wasn’t invoking NATO’s legal obligations. He was testing whether European countries that the U.S. has protected for over 80 years would do the bare minimum to help secure global sea lanes, which American taxpayers have also been underwriting for decades at no cost to them. In this case, those sea lanes benefit Europe far more than the U.S. and Europe failed the test.
Daniel Hannan@DanielJHannan
NATO members are obliged to support one another if attacked, not to join wars of choice. That stipulation was made at the demand of the US, which also insisted that the commitment be territorially limited. “The treaty does not cover the entire world,” said Dean Acheson. “It applies only to the North Atlantic area.” He made clear that this had been the key American condition. “We deliberately avoided any implication that we were undertaking a global military commitment.” The Senate, worried about being dragged into European colonial wars, had threatened to refuse ratification unless the limitations were explicit. As John Foster Dulles put it: “If it were made global in scope, it would not be acceptable to the United States.” Despite all this, the only time that NATO has gone to war was indeed out of area, at the request of the US after 9/11.
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@MichaelAArouet Maybe the left is aware that the Laffer curve is just a theoretical exercise, and there is no way of formulating tax policy based on it, nor of determining where on the curve a given country might be.
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Isn’t it funny that the left always assumes that when they increase tax rates, tax revenues will go up? What did they study, anthropology or gender?
Given where most European countries stand, cutting tax rates would boost growth and increase tax revenues.
Why don’t they do it?
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@EKalski78299 @MichaelAArouet Revenues also increased when taxes went up. You're cherry-picking data to support a conclusion, rather than reaching a conclusion based on data.
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President Kennedy lowered taxes in the 1960s and President Reagan in the 1980s. In both cases the revenue coming into the federal government increased. Increased! By lowering taxes!
Our politicians don't want to follow the lead of Kennedy and Reagan. They would rather continue a bad proposition.
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@migrationCtrl Aren't you just some scammer who gave themselves an official sounding name to trick boomers?
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It’s looking increasingly likely that Labour will give 1.6 million migrants settled status - and thus access to Britain’s welfare state and eventual citizenship.
It is a crowded field, but this would be one of largest immigration betrayals yet.
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…
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