President Donald J. Trump had harsh words for NATO as the Ankara summit began.  But as Brigadier General Blaine Holt (USAF, Ret.) pointed out, it’s about more than money.  That led to a wider discussion on Newsmax’s National Report of how the European Union’s tactics form a crucial backdrop to the American position at the NATO meetings.  To sum up: the U.S. side is well aware that the EU likes to tax American tech companies, and their draft EU space laws seek to box out large constellations operated by the United States.  Tensions with other NATO nations put strong allies like Poland in a favorable light – as evidenced by Poland’s request for the permanent presence of a U.S. armored brigade combat team.  Highlights below and show clip here.

E.D. Hill: The military, I believe Poland has been leading the charge there, and is actually ahead of schedule, but what about the rest of them? Are we seeing action there?

Blaine Holt:  We’re well beyond money, in terms of what the problems are with the transatlantic alliance.  The money is actually the smaller issue.  Secretary Rubio, and Vice President Vance before him, have warned Europe repeatedly about running away from western European values.  They’ve destroyed their economies, they’re preferencing net zero over industry and those are the pillars of this alliance that keep us unified and aligned.  And now they’ve failed us in terms of the Strait of Hormuz, and not supporting us, and not letting us use our bases.  So, there’s a lot more than just: what are you paying for defense these days?

Kryszia Lenzo: To that point Rebecca, and here’s President Trump saying this about his disappointment in NATO at the bilateral meeting this morning. Let’s watch.

President Donald J. Trump (Sound on Tape): We’ve invested trillions of dollars in NATO.  Why?  To protect European countries, and others.  You would think that they’d be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren’t, and I’ve long said that we help them, but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us.  Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down, and it’s OK, but you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they aren’t there for us, and we’ve always been there for them.

Kryszia Lenzo: Rebecca, characterize this alliance right now.  It does seem to be a bit strained and also President Trump a few weeks ago, he was threatening potentially leaving NATO.

Rebecca Grant: Two things here.  One, a lot of NATO partners made very weak statements during the combat phase of Operation Epic Fury, and that still really grinds on President Trump.  The other thing is, there’s a backdrop here of the EU antagonism towards U.S. businesses, a lot of our big tech companies.  They’re trying to write laws that would keep our space companies out of their constellation, so that’s a kind of constant background disruption.  That said, President Trump’s presence in Ankara is there to show that NATO can be and needs to be strong.  Russia is a huge threat.  The European allies are scared to death.  They need to up production of Patriots, they need to put an armored brigade combat team in Poland from the US on a permanent basis.  There is a lot to do, so I think he’s going to chide them for sure but then look to move forward.

Kryszia Lenzo:  On the sidelines, how significant will be the discussions about whether or not President Trump decides that he’s pulling back forces, that he’s pulling back weaponry?

Blaine Holt:  Well, we’re going to have a force structure review, we’ve made that very clear to the NATO countries, and at the G7.  I love what Dr. Grant is saying about the predatory tactics of the European Union.  It falls right in line with, this thing is much more complicated than money.  But we do care about European security.  So, what I believe President Trump invariably is going to do is say, okay, you want NATO to exist?  You want the transatlantic alliance to endure?  Well, here’s the new terms of the deal.

Full clip here.