[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #528 The EU is a foe!

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Trump fist-bumped Turkish leader Erdogan, said he "does things the right way"

In the days before his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday, President Donald Trump upset relations with America's allies during a visit to the United Kingdom and a contentious meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels.

In addition to calling the European Union a "foe" of the U.S. and criticizing British Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of Brexit, Mr. Trump slammed fellow NATO countries for not contributing more towards defense spending.

On "CBS This Morning" Monday, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and a CBS News senior global affairs contributor, said that backstage at the NATO meeting there were elements that were even more eyebrow-raising than reports have suggested.

"One is that emergency session where they asked the Georgian and Ukrainian presidents to leave in the middle of their presentation. Apparently Trump said, 'OK, we're done with you now,'" Bremmer said.

"Trump was very frustrated; he wasn't getting commitments from other leaders to spend more. Many of them said, 'Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can't just tell you we're going to spend more, we have a legal process.' Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, 'Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,' and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president."

It was a startling gesture of support for the increasingly authoritarian Turkish leader, who recently won another term and is widely expected to continue consolidating his power.

NATO Alliance Summit in Brussels
"If you want to talk about to what extent the allies are comfortable with Trump as a person, a strongman leader, what we saw at the G-20. at that second meeting, what we see now with NATO and the Putin meeting, this is a very visible suggestion," Bremmer said.

"Which would make a fist bump unattractive and disturbing to people - it's a universal sign of 'Way to go, good job,'" said co-host Gayle King.

Bremmer agreed that heralding a strongman leader like Erdogan, who has initiated purges internally against critics and who has no effective domestic opposition, would make other European leaders nervous. "Turkey is hardly a liberal democracy at this point," he said.

Bremmer also spoke to Mr. Trump's announcement at the end of the NATO talks when he took credit for an increase in allies' defense spending despite no announcement of increase.

"Apparently the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, was the last person to intervene at the summit," said Bremmer. "Before Trump had his press conference he said [to the president], 'Look, you're really frustrated. Why don't you just take a victory lap? Say that the allies have been spending $32 billion more since you became president. Take credit for it.' That's the last thing Trump heard before he left the meeting."

While Mr. Trump has been lambasting U.S. allies, he has also been praising Russian President Putin, congratulating him for hosting the World Cup tournament.

On Monday, before sitting down for their private one-on-one meeting, the two men spoke to the press. "We have discussions on everything from trade to military, to missiles, to nuclear, to China. We'll be talking a little bit about China, our mutual friend President Xi," Mr. Trump said. "We have great opportunities together as two countries that frankly we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years.

"I think we'll end up having an extraordinary relationship," he predicted.

Mr. Trump added that the fact the U.S. and Russia share a commonality in being nuclear powers is "not a good thing; that's a bad thing."

King asked Bremmer, "What do you make of the comments the two men made, President Putin and President Trump, before they sat down together?"

"I think [it's] interesting that Trump specifically talked about China, talked about China up there a bit more than any other thing he mentioned," Bremmer replied.

"He did not mention Russian meddling [in the U.S. election]," said King.

Trump claims Mueller probe is hurting Russia relations ("Face the Nation")
Bremmer replied, "There are many people that do believe that, long term, the United States and Russia should have a good relationship, [and that] China is the problem. China is the emerging superpower. China is actually the true competitor undermining America, but also undermining the Russians long term. I think that was Steve Bannon's view when he was chief strategist for the White House.

"I think it's interesting that Trump's clearly turning against Beijing. The $200 billion announced in tariffs that may be coming down, the unhelpfulness more recently on North Korea (from his perspective), I think he'd love talking to Putin on that."

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 18:29 schreef zomerindebol het volgende:

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waarom zou je niet zelf hulp zoeken, je ongelijk is groter dan je denkt

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 18:34 schreef mcmlxiv het volgende:

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Wanneer gaat dat nou gebeuren dan? Zo langzamerhand is de suspense toch wel killing hoor!

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 18:42 schreef Re het volgende:
Dit is hopelijk wel een omslagpunt

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Former CIA Director John Brennan on Monday blasted President Trump shortly after his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors,'" Brennan said on Twitter.

"It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin," the former CIA head continued. "Republican Patriots: Where are you???"

Trump condemned special counsel Robert Mueller's probe as "ridiculous" during his press conference and slammed the suggestion that Russian meddling played any role in his winning the 2016 presidential election.

"The probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it," Trump said just days after Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic servers during the 2016 campaign.

"It was a clean campaign," Trump went on, describing the margin of his electoral victory. "I beat Hillary Clinton easily... We won that race and it's a shame that there can be even a little bit of a cloud over it."


The former CIA head, who has regularly criticized Trump throughout his presidency, also blasted Trump last week after he hammered allies about their contributions to NATO at the group's annual summit.

Brennan also compared the president to "corrupt, incompetent ... demagogues" in an op-ed published in The Washington Post earlier this year.

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 18:58 schreef zomerindebol het volgende:

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Het was meer voor jullie als duidelijk wordt wat echt de waarheid is.

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The Trump-Bolton Misdirection on Russian Extradition: Plenty of Legal Options Exist to Gain Custody of Russian Suspects
On Sunday, President Donald Trump stated he “hadn’t thought of” pressing Vladimir Putin to extradite the dozen Russian nationals indicted earlier that week by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. When asked why not, National Security Adviser John Bolton gave a response that sounded legalistic: it would be “pretty silly” for President Trump to request the Russian fugitives’ extradition, he contended, because the United States lacks an extradition treaty with Russia and Russian law forbids extradition of its own nationals. Both should know better. Their comments suggest not that the Administration lacks legal options, but that it has no political will to seriously seek custody of the Russian fugitives. (Just Security).

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Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

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For Republicans, Russian sabotage of our elections is no big deal
Asked directly today at a press conference with Vladimir Putin whether he believes all the American intelligence agencies or the Russian president about Russian manipulation of the 2016 election, President Trump gave an extraordinary answer. After some barely comprehensible words passing on a conspiracy theory about the FBI not confiscating servers at the DNC after they were hacked by Russia, Trump said this:

"All I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me, some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be". (Washington Post).

SPOILER

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 19:07 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:
Ondertussen geeft Trump de EU nog een trap na terwijl hij heult met de vijand:

Iran nuclear deal: US rejects EU plea for sanctions exemption

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 18:42 schreef Re het volgende:
Dit is hopelijk wel een omslagpunt

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 19:40 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Ik denk dat er een aardige hoeveelheid shit over Trump gelekt gaat worden in de komende weken.

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Op maandag 16 juli 2018 19:41 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Wie twijfelt er nu nog aan of de Russen compromitterend materiaal of een ander chantagemiddel hebben waarmee ze Trump onder druk zetten? Ik inmiddels niet meer.

Hoewel ik wel de optie open houd dat Trump simpelweg te ijdel is om de Russische inmenging te erkennen, omdat het dan ineens niet meer zo'n grandioze prestatie van hem was.