While former President Obama was in office, our nation was an embarrassment at the national stage.
Obama’s weak leadership made it clear that world leaders could walk all over the United States.
But Trump has changed that, and he just embarrassed Obama by doing one thing he was too afraid to do.
After taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama began his presidency with an apology tour around the world, apologizing for America.
He apologized to Europe, the Muslim world, and to world leaders at the G20 Summit among other people and places.
That first step in his presidency signaled to the world that the United States will be weak when it comes to their leadership at the world stage, from dealing with conflict to trade, and other international issues.
In contrast, President Trump made it clear to the world stage that the United States would not apologize for their actions, and for protecting their interests with a fair trade policy. And he has continued with this mindset since his first day in office.
One particular way that the United States has been ripped off is through NATO funding. NATO is a military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.
The alliance is supposed to be mutually beneficial, with each country in the treaty promising to defend any other party in the case of an attack.
While NATO could be a good thing for U.S. allies, it is clearly not a fair agreement when it comes to funding.
The United States accounts for over 22 percent of funding for NATO, which is more than any other country by a longshot.
The only country that comes close to matching U.S. funding is Germany, which provides 14 percent of NATO funding.
In the past, presidents would ignore this fact, and continue to pay massive sums of money to fund NATO.
Another important note is that on top of NATO funding, U.S. armed forces directly support the defense of European countries outside of the NATO agreement.
President Trump has sounded the alarm on this, making it clear to NATO allies that they should spend more to fund their own defense.
The letters, which were sent to the leaders of Canada, Norway, Germany, and Belgium, expressed a growing frustration that none of those nations are paying their fair share.
This is a major testament to President Trump’s commitment to promoting American first policies.
Putting America first was one of his main talking points on the presidential campaign.
And considering the fact that many of the countries that the U.S. funds defense for have not done close to enough to reciprocate that support, it is unreasonable to continue this practice.
It becomes even harder to continue to spent boatloads of defense on countries that have directly challenged the United States to trade wars.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced a plan to impose $12.6 billion worth of tariffs on the United States, firing back at Trump in his push for fair trade in the United States.
Do you support Trump’s America first policies on trade and national defense?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
