It may seem counter-intuitive and head-scratchingly odd, but Congress nearly always approves defense spending bills before the armed services committees — which actually oversee the Pentagon — vote on how the money will be spent. Not this year. The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 …
Read More »NATO in the Trump Era:Personalities Versus Bureaucracy
It could be said of President Trump’s visit to the NATO summit that, “He came, he saw, he antagonized.” The two days was a mélange of headlines on personal conflicts, American bullying on spending, emergency meetings, and the long-term future of the organization. Despite that, the final communiqué adhered …
Read More »Trump says Germany ‘is captive to Russia’ in fiery opening salvo against NATO
President Trump unleashed a blistering attack Wednesday on Germany and other NATO allies, wasting no time to take the offensive before a week of high-stakes diplomacy on both sides of the former Cold War divide. The series of meetings — beginning with NATO and capped by a summit with Russian …
Read More »Donald Trump tells NATO allies to pay more for defense, raising tensions ahead of summit
President Trump is telling NATO allies they must pick up more of the costs for defense of the alliance, ratcheting up tensions as he prepares to join Western leaders at a summit in Brussels next week. In letters sent last month to the leaders of allies from Canada to Germany, Trump echoed …
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