Literary Corner: NATO as Protection Racket

 

NATO map by CBS News.

Until I Came Along

by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

NATO was busted until I came along.

You don't pay your bills, you get no protection.
It's very simple. I said,
‘Everybody’s gonna pay.’ They said, ‘Well,
if we don’t pay, are you still
going to protect us?’
I said, ‘Absolutely not.’

They couldn’t believe the answer.
One of the presidents of a big country
stood up and said, 'Well, sir,
if we don't pay and we're attacked
by Russia, will you protect us?'
'No, I would not protect you.
In fact, I would encourage them
to do whatever the hell they want.
You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.'

NATO actually does have bills, for its political headquarters and command structure in Brussels, which belong not to any specific country but to the organization as a whole, and various programs it runs, for a some €3.3 billion in 2023, or 0.3% of the members' total defense spending, and these are paid for with member contributions, on a sliding scale according to the wealth of the particular country: the two biggest being the US and Germany, at just over 16% each, with Britain and France coming next at 11% and 10% respectively, and so on, down to Montenegro, paying a bit under 0.03% of the budget.

It's not a whole lot of money, in reality, and NATO has never been busted, as Trump puts it. It's also not what Trump is talking about. But Trump does not know that. 

Literary Corner: He was not in a good mood

Detail from Gino Severini, Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin (1912)

So in his testimony, EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland was filling in the time gap in those famous text messages on 9 September, after Ambassador Taylor spooked him with his phrasing about the mysteriously frozen $390 million in security aid to Ukraine:

[9/9/19, 12:34:44 AM] Bill Taylor: Counting on you to be right about this interview [that President Zelensky was now expected to give to CNN, in which he would announce his plans to investigate the imaginary crimes of Andrea Chalupa, Joe Biden, and others], Gordon.

[9/9/19, 12:37:16 AM] Gordon Sondland: Bill, I never said I was “right”. I said we are where we are and believe we have identified the best pathway forward. Lets hope it works.

[9/9/19, 12:47:11 AM] Bill Taylor: As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.

[9/9/19, 5:19:35 AM] Gordon Sondland: Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks. 

As we know, Sondland called Trump for advice on what he ought to say to Taylor in response, and then sent the last text. What he told the Congress was that he had told Trump

he had gotten mixed signals from the Trump administration about what it sought from the Ukrainian government, and so he pressed Trump on what he wanted.... Trump repeatedly told him on the call “I want nothing” and there was no quid pro quo. (Andy Kroll/Rolling Stone)

Proving, evidently, in Trump's mind, that there was no quid pro quo, although Sondland had said in considerable detail that there was, and he hopes "it's all over". Seeing that on the television was the stimulus for what I think must be one of Trump's most powerful works, presented to the press today in the usual helicopter ambience, with the repetitions in epic style, in the technical sense (epic as a genre of orally transmitted culture is full of repetition and formula—that's how the performers, bards, remember the long texts), thudding like cannon fire.