Germany’s Friedrich Merz Admits that Europe Was ‘Free-Riding’ on US Defense and Security | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Serran
Germany’s Merz: ‘we have been free-riders in the past’.
In so many geopolitical aspects, US President Donald J. Trump has been way ahead of the curve.
Case in point: the (lack of) fairness in the defense efforts by the Western powers.
Since his first mandate, Trump has railed against NATO allies (and Europe in general) for freeloading on the US’ military infrastructure, forcefully calling on them to dramatically step up their defense spending.
Trump was called all sorts of bad names by European Globalists, by Democrats, Rinos, and Neocons.
But now, years later, we get to see German Chancellor Friedrich Merz openly admitting the Trump criticism that Europe ‘was doing too little to fund its own defense and security’.
BBC reported:
“’We know we have to do more on our own and we have been free-riders in the past’, he told the BBC’s Today Program, ‘they’re asking us to do more and we are doing more’.”
Trump and Merz during the Juner G7 Summit in Canada. Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Wiki Commons.
“Merz told Nick Robinson, in his first UK broadcast interview as chancellor, that he had now met Trump three times and they were on good speaking terms: ‘I think President Trump is on the same page; we are trying to bring this war to an end’.
‘We are on the phone once a week; we are coordinating our efforts. One issue is the war in Ukraine, and the second is our trade debates and tariffs’.”
Merz has been a ‘supporter of Ukraine’ since before he won the Chancellorship.
“Even before he had been sworn in, the chancellor steered through a change in the German constitution to enable a huge rise in defense spending, saying the rule now for German defense was to do whatever it takes.
‘We are not strong enough, our army is not strong enough, so that’s the reason why we are spending a lot of money,” he said in his BBC interview’.”
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