On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, leaders of Allied nations came together to commemorate the brave men who sacrificed their lives in order to preserve freedom in the Western world and to liberate Europe from the totalitarian Nazi regime. Leaders of all nations reminded one another of the need to come together and do their part to prevent another world war from taking place. But the journalists at CNN New Day focused on reminding Donald Trump of this message.
Trump has been critical of his NATO allies from not paying their fair share of the 2% GDP commitment to the organization.
According to CNN global analyst Susan Glasser, that’s not only cause for concern, it’s equal to Trump waging a “systematic assault” on U.S. allies (click “expand to read more”):
Well, I think you’re absolutely right. It's very striking how that's been the message you heard from the Queen herself, from the Prime Minister of Great Britain. I’m sure that when the President goes to France that he will hear something similar from President Macron. Why, probably, the signature of Donald Trump's foreign policy over these last two and a half years has been a pretty systematic assault on the idea of America as a partner, America as an ally. Perhaps first among partners, but nonetheless the leader of a multilateral alliance. This is really, more than anything else, I would say, the signature of the Trump Administration when it comes to its position about the United States in the world. It is the biggest contrast. You could argue that on many other foreign policy issues the President essentially gets a grade of incomplete so far. You know, he's begun talks with North Korea. They haven’t seemed to lead anywhere. He’s withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, ratcheted up the pressure, but now talking about having talks. So, you know, we’re not really certain where many of the President’s policy initiatives lead. What we can say most definitively is I think that we’ll look back upon this period as a period of enormous Trump induced stress test on America’s alliances. These festivities, it’s as if they are designed to appeal to one man and to say to the President of the United States, do what your country has done historically and lead.
The last sentence was incredibly dumbfounding. Is rallying your allies to contribute to their global cause not leading? Should the U.S. just ignore its allies’ lack of commitment? CNN seems to think so. If this multilateral alliance is truly supposed to be a team effort, why does Glasser take such an issue with the President demanding that allies contribute to their agreement?
This entire segment begs the question: what exactly is a “systematic assault?” Withdrawing from an ineffective nuclear deal with a country that regularly sponsors terrorism? Shouldn’t they then criticize former President Obama for his lack of action during the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula? If anything were to be considered a “systematic assault on the idea of America as a partner” it would be the lack of support in combating Russia’s aggression in Europe.
The liberal media have been more focused on finding a way to criticize Trump than they have been with objectively covering the D-Day commemoration. Rather than correctly point out that other nations have been slacking in fulfilling their commitment to NATO, they complain that Trump is tearing down longstanding international institutions by demanding that other nations step up.
Here’s the entire transcript:
CNN's New Day
06/05/2019
7:03 a.m. Eastern
JOHN BERMAN: Susan Glasser, just in terms of America's place in the world, I keep reading and re-reading the famous letter that Dwight Eisenhower wrote and sent on June 6th, and it's filled with the idea of collective security and internationalism in company with our brave allies and brothers in arms, Eisenhower wrote. He refers to the United Nations, which is before the actual founding of the United Nations as we know it today, and it's just interesting to think back 75 years ago and the message of internationalism, and to put it in contrast to some of the ideas that we are hearing today.
SUSAN GLASSER: Well, I think you’re absolutely right. It's very striking how that's been the message you heard from the Queen herself, from the Prime Minister of Great Britain. I’m sure that when the President goes to France that he will hear something similar from President Macron. Why, probably, the signature of Donald Trump's foreign policy over these last two and a half years has been a pretty systematic assault on the idea of America as a partner, America as an ally. Perhaps first among partners, but nonetheless the leader of a multilateral alliance. This is really, more than anything else, I would say, the signature of the Trump Administration when it comes to its position about the United States in the world. It is the biggest contrast. You could argue that on many other foreign policy issues the President essentially gets a grade of incomplete so far. You know, he's begun talks with North Korea. They haven’t seemed to lead anywhere. He’s withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, ratcheted up the pressure, but now talking about having talks. So, you know, we’re not really certain where many of the President’s policy initiatives lead. What we can say most definitively is I think that we’ll look back upon this period as a period of enormous Trump induced stress test on America’s alliances. These festivities, it’s as if they are designed to appeal to one man and to say to the President of the United States, do what your country has done historically and lead.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Here are the words of the Prime Minister Theresa May we’ll say to all of your points. She says this is a significant moment in our shared history. We will together reflect on the continued importance of the Western alliance for all our country's security and prosperity, I mean, Abby, she is just using, you know, very, I think, significant weighted words to impart the message that they’ve been trying to do. I just wonder if you have any reporting if this is changing the President’s world view.
ABBY PHILLIP: Well, it's really not clear yet, but Alisyn, you're totally right. This entire trip has been about an education for President Trump. It's been about every person around him trying to impart on him the importance of America's role in the world. Even the Queen giving him, as a gift, a copy of a first edition of Winston Churchill's book on World War II. And -- and Theresa May showing him around to the war room, showing him all of the various things here in the United Kingdom as evidence of the longstanding alliance, and it’s partly to show President Trump this isn't about the United States being taken advantage of, which is typically how he talks about a lot of these post war alliances and post war systems that he has described actually shared defense as other countries in Europe taking advantage of the United States' military might. But today -- and I think all of the events of this week have been about showing that the United States leading has been -- has been one of the reasons there has been peace and prosperity for 75 years and that's not something to throw away. The U.S. gets as much out of it as Europe gets out of us. This has been about show and tell for President Trump, whether or not he'll read Churchill's book. I don't know whether or not he'll internalize this, I don’t know, but I think the White House would say that even as much as the President has criticized the institutions he hasn't actually tried to undermine NATO. He hasn’t actually tried to dismantle these institutions. That’s their version of it, but I think there is so much anxiety here in Europe about the President’s stance and this is why there is a full-court press to try to get him on the same page as the rest of Europe on this.
