RUSH: Over across the pond, Trump took it to NATO. He made a speech over there. They’ve got a brand-new headquarters building that is just out of this world. The way Trump opined on it was to say, “I don’t even want to know what this building cost. I didn’t even ask them what it cost.” Because Trump knows they didn’t pay for it; we did. Trump jumped in their chili about all the NATO members still in arrears in their dues to NATO.
Most people probably know by now, but for those of you who don’t, NATO dues are not paid to NATO. Member nations in NATO must instead pledge to spend at least 2% of their GDP on the defense of their own country. There are many NATO nations that are in arrears. This 2% is an annual figure. Some of these nations in NATO haven’t paid in years. Trump called them out. Other NATO members were standing there and these sniveling little leftists all began snickering at Trump while he was calling them out.
But he was in this speech — and we’ve got sound bites coming up — he was the Donald Trump of the campaign.
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RUSH: Moving on now across the pond to the NATO meeting, North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Trump had a meeting with the NATO people at their brand spanking new headquarters. Now, folks, just a brief aside here. What does NATO do? We all think we know. What would you say?
Mr. Snerdley, if a political neophyte approached with you genuine curiosity and wanted to know what NATO does, what is it? Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Exactly right. Snerdley has it down pat. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an organization formed in the aftermath of the Cold War, the European nations and other Western democracies aligning to defend and protect each other from Soviet aggression.
This is prior to the Soviets becoming the Russians. Well, the Soviets have always been Russians. But now they’re not called Soviets ’cause there isn’t any Soviet Union. Putin is trying to reassemble the Soviet Union. It’s now called the Russian Federation. And member nations love being members, because it basically means the United States is gonna defend them. NATO member states are required as dues to pay 2% — well, that’s the wrong word. They don’t pay anything. They’re required as dues to spend minimum 2% of their GDP every year on their own defense.
Most member nations have not been doing so. Some have not spent any on defense. Some are in the 1% range, 1.9. The United States is at 3.3%, by the way. A couple other nations are at 2%, two above, but most are beneath. Germany’s at 1.9%. Germany’s not even meeting its requirements. This is very crucial because it allows all these European nations to not have to spend anything on defense as a percentage of their budgets compared to the United States, which defends itself and the world.
The United States is bearing the lion’s share of actual defense on the ground, responsibility, armaments, production, deployment, and dues, money for the defense of Europe. Fine, we’re the superpower, we’re the leader of the free world. We have to stand for the defense of liberty everywhere if it’s gonna mean anything here. I understand that. But many of these nations are allowed, therefore, to have these giant welfare states and open border immigration policies because they theoretically have all the money to pay for this ’cause they’re not having to pay for their own defense.
They’re never called on it. The entire life of NATO, no American president — I take this back. Most American presidents have, in official and protocol-related circumstances, referred to this circumstance, but they’ve never called out any of these nations who have been in arrears. It’s almost a perfunctory-like statement either at a NATO conference or at the United Nations or some such thing. But there’s never any teeth behind it.
Trump came along in the campaign and started attacking NATO as an illegitimate organization that’s not carrying its own weight, way too dependent on the United States, it’s not fair, and going forward they’re gonna pay up, they’re gonna pay their fair share. Well, of course establishmentarians around the world were in shocked disbelief. This just isn’t done. Things like this are not even thought, much less said. Who does Trump think he is? He doesn’t understand. The rules are that the United States is the world butt boy when it comes to this stuff because the United States is the wealthiest, richest nation on earth and the United States must pay for everybody else, it’s only fair. That’s the kind of thing Obama believes.
And all of these Western European socialists and democracies, they believe the same thing. Trump’s come along and said, screw that. And he told them again today to screw that. We have two bites of Trump in Brussels. You know, time everything when Trump’s over there. This happened a little bit after four o’clock ’cause they’re six hours ahead, so they do everything late in the afternoon over there to make the major news cycle here in the U.S. This happened a little after ten o’clock this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. And many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.
RUSH: And they’re standing there, they’re all there. The big NATO conference, Trump’s up there, he’s headlining it, they’re all standing there snickering. They’re looking at each other, hee-hee-hee-hee, pointing at him. Not literally, but you can just see their faces, what a doofus, what an absolute bubkes, this guy doesn’t have the slightest idea how the world works. What a joke. You can see it on their faces. Trump was not finished.
THE PRESIDENT: If all NATO members had spent just 2% of their GDP on defense last year, we would have another $119 billion for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves. We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats, even 2% of GDP is insufficient to close the gaps in modernizing readiness and the size of forces. And I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refused to do that. But it is beautiful.
RUSH: Whoa! Let me tell you about that comment. That was Trump saying he thinks it is an outrageous waste what these people are spending on their headquarters. And if you get a chance, I’m sure you either have or you will see video of the building, some of it as they’re standing outside next to it. It’s a palace. It’s a modern-day glass and — not a palace in the sense of Versailles, but it’s state of the art.
And what’s in there? Just a bunch bureaucrats and diplomats spending everybody else’s money, waiting to do what? How many people does it really take to be in an office building to administer what NATO does? Which is nothing until a member nation is attacked. Except it does more than that. NATO probably gives away money, NATO probably does grants. It’s probably engaged in activities way, way, way beyond its charter.
And if I had to guess, I would say that NATO is just another in a long line of world organizations that’s involved in the redistribution of money, primarily United States money. It’s akin to the European Union. I mean, these people, they live lives of luxury and fortune, wealth and so forth. What do they do? Their countries are being overrun! They’re standing idly by and watching their countries being overrun! They are purposely welcoming in the people who are engaging in terrorist acts like that that happened in Manchester.
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RUSH: Pamela Geller at her website, “Nearly Seven Million Muslim Migrants Are Waiting to Cross into Europe.” What could possibly go wrong here? “The latest impending wave of Muslim migrants comes from the same region (North Africa) as the Manchester mass-murdering Muslim who bombed the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. And the EU will ‘not hesitate’ to fine member states over migrant quotas. The EU machine is hellbent on the destruction of the continent it ought to serve. Conquest without even putting on the jackboots. Nearly seven million migrants are waiting to cross into Europe,” according to Pamela Geller.
Now, let’s say this is right. What do these leaders think they are doing? I don’t know. I can’t begin to fathom this. But what is happening is the outright smothering and disintegration of the native cultures of these countries. Forget that there’s terrorists involved, forget that this is Islam. Just think of any nation opening its borders to, well, let’s leave the Islam factor and the militant, ’cause it’s necessary. Why would these leaders be doing this?
What in the world is there to gain from allowing their own unique and distinctive national cultures from being obliterated and overridden. There are three nations in Europe that are having none of these problems. Slovenia is one and Poland is another. They have no terrorism. There are no acts of terror reported in Slovenia or Poland. You know why? Because they are not allowing this migration.
And it came up in the French presidential campaign. The winner of that election was criticizing Poland for not sharing in the burden. Instead of using what’s going on in Poland as a learning and guiding example, they look at Poland, it’s not fair. This is what the left always does, destroy achievement, attack things that are being done the right way, take people who are at the top and knock ’em down, whittle ’em down so that they have everything in common with people at the lower end of whatever scale you’re talking about.
This is just absurd, and it’s not new. This has been going on for years and years now. Some people think the U.K. is gone, meaning the U.K. is never going to be what it was. And if this kind of thing continues, folks, which it will. I mean, in Europe the pressure is on. The European Union and others are pressuring every nation state to open its borders and accept these refugees and immigrants. And it defies common-sense for you and me.
Now, there’s obviously something in this for these elitist establishmentarians to gain. There’s something here that they think is going to really benefit them. Whatever it is, it’s not gonna help anybody else. As long as this kind of stuff goes on, can you ever foresee the day of really overcoming and defeating radical Islamic terrorism? If we’ve got political leadership like this, which is feckless and scared to death to stand up for itself, whatever they have, they don’t have anybody fearless.
They do not have people who are fearless in the face of propaganda, of evil. They don’t have anybody fearless of encroaching leftism. Take a look at Manchester. While little English girls are terrified and dead and maimed, what’s the story in the American Drive-By Media? Islamophobia. Worried about the backlash against Muslims.
And every event, every terror event, no matter where it is, the first reaction in the media around the world is we’d better not have any backlash against Muslims. This is not from Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. If that’s the case, it’s not gonna be stopped.
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RUSH: You know, all you have to do is ask. I ask all the time what, why, who. What does NATO do? You think NATO just sits around and waits for a war to break out or a member state to be attacked and they move in and defend it? No. Have you heard about the NATO Center for Climate and Security? Mission and vision: “The Center for Climate and Security, a non-partisan –” ha “– security and foreign policy institute with a distinguished Advisory Board of military, security and foreign policy experts, envisions a climate-resilient international security landscape.
“This is a world which recognizes that climate change threats to international security are significant and unprecedented, and acts to address those threats in a manner that is commensurate to their scale, consequence and probability. To further this goal, CCS facilitates policy development processes and dialogues, provides analysis, conducts research, and acts as a resource hub in the climate and security field.”
What a bunch of gobbledygook! Facilitates policy development processes. Not policy, but process and dialogues. Yes, my friends, the non-partisan Center for Climate and Security does dialogue. They provide analysis. They conduct research. They act as a resource hub in the climate and security field.
From Reuters just three days ago: “NATO Lawmakers Warn Climate Change May Worsen Middle East Security Risks. Climate change will worsen food and water shortages in the Middle East and North Africa and risk triggering even more conflict and mass migration with serious implications for the wider world. Lawmakers from NATO’s parliamentary assembly said –” Good Lord, it’s just another gigantic quasi-government. And notice here, climate change, which isn’t happening, climate change is causing potential threats, dire droughts and floods and thirst and hunger. Where?
It just so happens to be in the parts of Africa that harbor militant Islamic terrorists and they’re gonna have to flee where they live because there’s no water, it’s so hot and there’s nothing but dust, dirt and filth and nobody wants to live there and so they don’t. They leave. They want to go to Europe and we in Europe must be prepared to accept them because we are suicidal good people.
Now, I have the Dittocam on and it’s up tight because I want to show you something. I’ve got a picture of the NATO building. This is the ugliest, the most unsightly memorial to I don’t know what. This looks like a giant, I mean, humongously giant airplane hangar. Here it is, folks. That is the new NATO headquarters. We’ll put a link to this photo at RushLimbaugh.com. That thing is bigger than the new Apple spaceship headquarters. This thing is just downright flat ugly. And imagine it populated with a bunch of diplomats and bureaucrats and other bottom feeders, and who knows where they’re getting the money for their salaries and how they’re living, but you know it’s coming from us.
What an ugly, ugly, I mean, who designed this? This looks like a miniature of an airplane terminal say at JFK back in the fifties. Looks like something TWA would have, except TWA’s was much, much nicer and more modern appearing.