Thursday, July 21, 2016

Bills, bills, bills

Donald Trump's promise to dick over our most vulnerable NATO allies has gotten a lot of press. But when I read the actual interview transcript, this is what jumped out at me:

SANGER: I was just in the Baltic States. They are very concerned obviously about this new Russian activism, they are seeing submarines off their coasts, they are seeing airplanes they haven’t seen since the Cold War coming, bombers doing test runs. If Russia came over the border into Estonia or Latvia, Lithuania, places that Americans don’t think about all that often, would you come to their immediate military aid? 
TRUMP: I don’t want to tell you what I’d do because I don’t want Putin to know what I’d do. I have a serious chance of becoming president and I’m not like Obama, that every time they send some troops into Iraq or anyplace else, he has a news conference to announce it. 
SANGER: They are NATO members, and we are treaty-obligated —— 
TRUMP: We have many NATO members that aren’t paying their bills. 
SANGER: That’s true, but we are treaty-obligated under NATO, forget the bills part. 
TRUMP: You can’t forget the bills. They have an obligation to make payments. Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they’re supposed to make. That’s a big thing. You can’t say forget that.
What the fuck is he talking about when he says they "aren't paying their bills"? What bills isn't Estonia paying? Does anyone know what he is talking about? Or is this just another example of Trump talking out his ass due to his total ignorance?