
<p>One of the Democrats evergreen narratives is that President Trump undermined and weakened NATO. ; This may be another example of spinning the rhetoric and ignoring the facts.</p>



<p>In his inimitable style – of which I am a constant critic – Trump berated NATO members. ; Critics say he wanted to withdraw the United States from the Alliance. But why?</p>



<p>The central issue for Trump was that NATO members were not meeting their individual commitments to fund NATO – leaving the United States to pay more than its fair share. ; (I guess NATO was using the United Nations funding philosophy.) ;</p>



<p>That is not a new issue. ; Virtually every modern-day President had called on the member-nations to meet their commitments. ; While they relied on a “pretty please” approach – that repeatedly failed to get results &#8212; Trump complained openly and loudly. ; His bellicose language and perceived threats were not intended to weaken NATO – or really withdraw America – but to get the member-nations to ante up. ; IN fact, it was a call to strengthen NATO.</p>



<p>Even the Secretary General of NATO publicly agreed with Trump that the members had to increase their financial contributions to meet their obligations – and the challenges of an increasingly hostile world environment.</p>



<p>It worked. ; The member-nations increased their financial contributions. ; This left NATO stronger. ; Not weaker. ; And once that was accomplished, Trump stopped bad-mouthing the Alliance. ; He had done what his predecessors had tried to do – but failed.</p>



<p>Trump approved the addition of Montenegro to NATO – much to the chagrin of Vladimir Putin. ; The Russian despot was apoplectic over the addition of more nations to NATO. ; It was thwarting his maniacal dream of taking back the old captive nations that were once part of the Soviet Union of his dreams.</p>



<p>Then there was oil.</p>



<p>Trump not only railed against NATO’s dependency on Russian oil, but he also stopped the certification of the second Nord Stream Pipeline to Germany. ; Trump argued that NATO’s dependency on Russian oil weakened NATO. ; He offered to work on the infrastructure that would allow the United States to start supplying oil and gas to Europe – based on Trump’s efforts to make America oil independent and an exporter nation. ; In 2019, the United States became both oil independent and an exporter nation.</p>



<p>Reducing NATO-nations dependence on Russian oil would have had a significant impact on the Alliance’s response to Putin’s dirty little war. ; NATO would have been stronger.</p>



<p>Unfortunately, President Biden had different ideas. ; He cut American oil production – currently and in the future. ; He ended American oil independence. ; He reversed Trump and approved the Nord Steam Pipeline. ; And did nothing to provide the means to sell oil and gas to our European allies. ; With just those policy reversals, Biden weakened both NATO and the United States – a weakness Putin perceived to be to his advantage.</p>



<p>The only thing that can be said about the Democrats bogus claim that Trump weakened NATO – or wanted to weaken NATO – is that the former President did use belligerent and un-diplomatic language to get the job done. ; And to the left – especially the pin-stripe pants crowd – protocol is more important than results. ; And to the left-leaning news media, propaganda attacks on Trump are more important than honest journalism.</p>



<p>The argument that Trump weakened NATO is simply untrue. ; Quite the opposite.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Did Trump undermine NATO?
