Trump Gave Merkel an Invoice for Past Due NATO Payments

In one of our favorite stories yet from behind the curtain of the Trump administration, it is being reported that President Trump presented German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a mocked-up, printed invoice demanding she contribute the country’s fair share to NATO.

From the UK Independent:

The US President is said to have had an “invoice” printed out outlining the sum estimated by his aides as covering Germany’s unpaid contributions for defence.

Said to be presented during private talks in Washington, the move has been met with criticism from German and Nato officials.

While the figure presented to the Germans was not revealed by either side, Nato countries pledged in 2014 to spend two per cent of their GDP on defence, something only a handful of nations – including the UK, Greece, Poland and Estonia – currently do.

But the bill has been backdated even further to 2002, the year Mrs Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, pledged to spend more on defence.

Fantastic.

Apparently, Trump told his staffers to go back and calculate how far from the pledged baseline Germany’s contributions have been over the last 12 years, add interest, and then print up an invoice. All told, it’s said to have come to £300bn.

Of course, the German government didn’t find it quite as amusing as we do. The Sunday Times spoke to an unnamed government minister, who said it was an “outrageous” stunt.

“The concept behind putting out such demands is to intimidate the other side, but the Chancellor took it calmly and will not respond to such provocations,” he said.

It’s time for Merkel and the rest of our allies to get a sense of humor. And, you know, if you don’t find it funny, then maybe you have another choice. Maybe you could take the message behind it seriously, because this is part of the entire anti-establishment movement happening in the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, and elsewhere. And the more you liberal globalists dig in your heels and refuse to acknowledge some simple truths, the more vicious and powerful that movement will become.

There is a middle ground between isolationist nationalism and the One World Nation that has been failing before our eyes. Once the current establishment stops pretending that the death of their foolhardy dream means the return of the Third Reich, we can actually choose a new way forward that corrects the mistakes of the past.

So why not enjoy a little bit of levity in the meantime?