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Trump's Case for America Walking Away from NATO · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: And you do what I just said, fund Ice and
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  Speaker 1: border Patrol with the deal we've had, then you've got
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  Speaker 1: DHS in a good shape. Here's what I want. The
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  Speaker 1: American people know it's dangerous as the world is. The
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  Speaker 1: Democratic Party will not give money to the Border Patrol
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  Speaker 1: at a time of great danger in peril. Ice can
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  Speaker 1: be reformed, but they want to put it out of business.
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  Speaker 1: This is insane.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 1: Good Saturday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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  Speaker 1: the forty seven Morning Update. And we've got one big
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  Speaker 1: story for you. Donald Trump threatening to get America out
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  Speaker 1: of NATO unless other members step up and pay their
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  Speaker 1: fair share. So what caused all this? We explain it
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  Speaker 1: to you. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
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  Speaker 1: starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So let's deal with the elephant in the
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  Speaker 1: room and this really growing conversation right now about President
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  Speaker 1: Trump just straight up saying what so many Americans are thinking,
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  Speaker 1: and that is that well, NATO and our quote unquote
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  Speaker 1: allies are like pretty much worthless. They don't do much
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  Speaker 1: for us, right like they have hung us out to dry.
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  Speaker 1: So is there a way, as the President described it,
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  Speaker 1: to punish NATO allies, And if you understand history, it's
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  Speaker 1: not hard to see why. Now if you go back
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  Speaker 1: and look at the data, the United States has carried
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  Speaker 1: the overwhelming burden of NATO, not just in money, but
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  Speaker 1: also in manpower, in leading it, with strategy, with other
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  Speaker 1: bad actors in the world, and just overall leadership. NATO
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  Speaker 1: was in theory created as a collective defense alliance. That's
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  Speaker 1: not what it really is though, all right. The reality
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  Speaker 1: is that America has been acting as the only defender,
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  Speaker 1: the primary defender, if you want to call it, that
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  Speaker 1: of Europe while many of the quote unquote and I
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  Speaker 1: call them quote unquote allies because they don't act like it,
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  Speaker 1: have failed to live up to their commitments for decades
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  Speaker 1: and they knew that America would keep footing the bill.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just start with the basics, Okay. NATO countries agreed
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  Speaker 1: to spend two percent of their GDP on defense. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that was not a suggestion. I want you to understand.
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  Speaker 1: That was the actual promise, like the guarantee, and for
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  Speaker 1: many years, many of these countries haven't done that at all.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of investing in their own security. They just decided
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  Speaker 1: we'll rely on America to not only pick up the tab,
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  Speaker 1: but to come save our aas's if we ever need them. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's when it gets even more frustrating for me, because
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  Speaker 1: some of the same countries that are literally purposely underfunding
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  Speaker 1: their own militaries, they're actually spending heavy on domestic programs.
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  Speaker 1: Why are they doing that because they expect you and
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  Speaker 1: I as taxpayers to guarantee their protection. Now, President Trump
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  Speaker 1: has been signing the alarm on this four years. We were
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  Speaker 1: talking about this in fifteen and sixteen, and even before
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  Speaker 1: that when he was in the private sector that America
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  Speaker 1: has taken advantage of. And his position now is actually
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  Speaker 1: pretty simple. If you want America to protect you, then
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  Speaker 1: you need to start paying your fair share. And it's
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  Speaker 1: not even about just the money. It's also about loyalty
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  Speaker 1: and priorities. The White House Press Secretary had this to
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  Speaker 1: say when she was asked about it from the briefing room.
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  Speaker 3: John John, thanks a lot, Caroline.
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  Speaker 1: Two questions for you.
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  Speaker 3: One has to do with the statement, a joint statement
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  Speaker 3: put out this morning by some of America's European allies,
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  Speaker 3: our NATO allies, and in that joint statement they said
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  Speaker 3: regarding the Strait of Formouse, our governments will contribute to
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  Speaker 3: ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of for Mouse.
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  Speaker 3: The administration's reaction to that joint statement is that smooth
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  Speaker 3: things over when the President meets with NATO's Secretary General
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  Speaker 3: a little bit later this afternoon.
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  Speaker 4: Direct quote from the President of the United States on NATO,
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  Speaker 4: and I will share it with all of you. They
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  Speaker 4: were tested and they failed. And I would add it's
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  Speaker 4: quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American
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  Speaker 4: people over the course of the last six weeks when
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  Speaker 4: it's the American people who have been defunding their defense.
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  Speaker 4: As you know, President Trump will be meeting with Secretary
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  Speaker 4: Rutta in a couple of hours here at the White House,
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  Speaker 4: and I know he looks forward to having a very
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  Speaker 4: frank and candid conversation with him.
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  Speaker 1: Now, before I even get to some of the money
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  Speaker 1: aspects of this, let me just talk about the loyalty aspect,
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  Speaker 1: all right. There have been repeated moments where NATO allies
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  Speaker 1: have been deliberately slow to act. They've also been multiple
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  Speaker 1: moments where they've been divided or outright unwilling to step
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  Speaker 1: up when it matters the most, because it's all about
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  Speaker 1: the money to them, whether it is confronting our adversaries,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's increasing their own defense readiness so they're were
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  Speaker 1: less reliant on the US or backing US led initiatives
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  Speaker 1: on the global stage. Our NATO allies have been screwing
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  Speaker 1: us every time chance they get. So what happens if
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  Speaker 1: the United States of America stops treating NATO as a
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  Speaker 1: one way street. That is the question the media should
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  Speaker 1: be asking, and they're not. It could actually mean a
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  Speaker 1: range of different things happen. It could actually make Europe
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  Speaker 1: stand up for themselves more and that would actually be
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  Speaker 1: a good thing for us in this country. It would
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  Speaker 1: also force them to more directly meet their obligations to
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  Speaker 1: applying economic or even diplomatic pressure on others and saying
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  Speaker 1: to their allies within NATO outside of the US like hey,
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  Speaker 1: we got to step up, and you got to step up,
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  Speaker 1: and in other countries like well, if we're going to step up,
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  Speaker 1: then you better step up because then there would be
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  Speaker 1: actual accountability. Now, the goal for the White House, I
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  Speaker 1: want to be clear, and I've talked to the White
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  Speaker 1: House about this is not to abandon NATO. It is
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  Speaker 1: to in essence, rebalance it as it's been described, or
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  Speaker 1: even rework it, or re organize it, or if you
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  Speaker 1: really want to look at it for what it is,
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  Speaker 1: it needs to have a balance sheet that has changed drastically.
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  Speaker 1: The President has made it clear that the current system
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  Speaker 1: rewards weakness and dependency. It penalizes the country doing the
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  Speaker 1: most to keep the alliance strong, which, over and over
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  Speaker 1: again is you guessed it, us, the United States of
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  Speaker 1: America and our tax dollars. And for far too long,
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  Speaker 1: as Trump has been saying this, America has been expected
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  Speaker 1: to do more, spend more, risks more, including our men
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  Speaker 1: and women in uniform, and the others who are doing
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  Speaker 1: the least are benefiting the most from our protections. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's also just talk about the money, because this matters.
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  Speaker 1: As of the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five budget,
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  Speaker 1: that's the latest that we have, the United States is
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  Speaker 1: the largest contributor to NATO's direct budget, accounting for approximately
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  Speaker 1: fifteen point eight to sixteen percent of the Shared Common
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  Speaker 1: Fund und budget. All right. This direct funding, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: covers NATO's headquarters, joint operations, and infrastructure amounting to about
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy two million to seven hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty three million in twenty twenty four. These are the
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  Speaker 1: best numbers I have. That's a hell of a lot
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  Speaker 1: of our tax dollars. Now, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
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  Speaker 1: and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Extended Group
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  Speaker 1: is very interesting because here's the breakdown of the US funding.
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  Speaker 1: Number One, direct funding, that is the common budget. It
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  Speaker 1: is a percentage share. The US contributes about one sixth
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  Speaker 1: of NATO's direct annual budget, which totaled around three point
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  Speaker 1: five billion in twenty twenty four. Now, as in March
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  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, the US and Germany shared the
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  Speaker 1: highest percentage, both paying fifteen point eighty eight percent of
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  Speaker 1: the common funded budget. You go back and look at
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  Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen agreement, all right, it reduced the US
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  Speaker 1: share from twenty two percent to about sixteen percent. That
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  Speaker 1: would be matching Germany. Then NATO has another part, and
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  Speaker 1: that's their indirect funding. That's defense spending. There's a two
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  Speaker 1: percent target. NATO members aim to spend two percent of
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  Speaker 1: their own gross te metastic product on national defense. Now
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  Speaker 1: the US is spending for example, in twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: about three point four to nine percent of its GDP
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  Speaker 1: on defense and total defense output in terms of raw dollars,
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  Speaker 1: the US accounts for roughly sixty to sixty two percent
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  Speaker 1: of the total defense spending of all NATO nations combined.
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  Speaker 1: What does that mean? We're the ones doing all the
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  Speaker 1: work and they're getting the benefit of our hard work.
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  Speaker 1: That is estimated to be about one trillion dollars in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. That number is going to go up
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six because of what's happening in Iran.
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  Speaker 1: Just so you understand now, the recent quote promises or
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  Speaker 1: dive developments have been a five percent target. Following pressure
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  Speaker 1: from the Trump administration that NATO allies in June of
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five agreed to a new non binding goal
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  Speaker 1: of increasing spending defense spending to five percent of GDP
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  Speaker 1: by twenty thirty five. Guess what, most of the countries
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  Speaker 1: aren't moving at all, because it kicked the can down
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  Speaker 1: the road a decade to twenty thirty five. All right,
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  Speaker 1: European allies in Canada have significantly increased their spending, however,
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  Speaker 1: with estimates suggesting all members would meet the two percent
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  Speaker 1: target at least now for the first time, but there's
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  Speaker 1: still far to many other countries that are not doing it.
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  Speaker 1: This goes back to exactly what I said about the
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  Speaker 1: President of the United States of America, Donald Trump understands
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  Speaker 1: that unless you're willing to walk away and directly criticize
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  Speaker 1: these quote allies and say good luck, defending yourself, nothing
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  Speaker 1: will change, Nothing at all will change. And the President
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  Speaker 1: knows that. So is it time for America to say
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  Speaker 1: to our allies, our fake allies and NATO, good luck,
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  Speaker 1: like defend yourself, good luck. Yes, overwhelmingly, that is exactly
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  Speaker 1: what we should be doing. I think there's a very
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  Speaker 1: good chance that is where we're headed. I think there's
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  Speaker 1: a very good chance that this is what the future
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  Speaker 1: is going to look like. And I'm honestly beyond thrilled
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  Speaker 1: that this is what's happening.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.