Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
User ID: 137
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
2d ago
Sure, but that's ephemeral if the question is whether Trump is making Europe spend more on defense through bully-boy tactics or whether Europe would be spending more on defense anyway - and, indeed, an important point is that it's after Europe has done what Trump ostensibly wants it to do that Trump has decided to start provoking and undercutting Europe in various and sundry ways.
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
2d ago
Europe started ramping up defense spending in 2022 already (for obvious reason) and hiked it more from 2023 to 2024 than from 2024 to 2025.
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
5d ago
If one looks at social media on this topic, it is exactly Europeans offering these criticisms of American foreign policy and getting, in return, incoherent rage from the same Americans who just previously were boasting about how the American foreign policy is completely different now and the mistakes of Iraq (the previous time there was an American administration that was shitting on Europe, or large parts of it, for failing to support a dumb war) were surely not going to be repeated.
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
5d ago
2 out of 3 Euros are unable to contain their seething contempt and will eventually have to get in a "witty" (passive-aggressive) dig about guns/racism/big cars/food/etc apropos of nothing in an otherwise friendly conversation.
You don't think that Euros make similar witty remarks about each other's countries when talking about each other? It's just normal nationality-related bants. They may be unfunny, of course, as bants frequently are unfunny, being that people frequently are unfunny.
None of this matters. Pro-MAGA Americans seems to clutch to anecdotes about smug Europeans being smug to sidestep the fact that Europe currently has very obvious reasons to be angry at America - ie. doing things that America supposedly has wanted from Europe (hiking up defense spending, cutting immigration, taking more responsibility for Ukraine, European leaders going into a frankly embarassing effort to kiss Trump's ass personally in 2025 etc.) and have received, as a reward, scolding from Vance, tariffs, the Greenland affair and now a looming huge energy crisis caused by Trump's impulsive war in Iran.
"Iran agreed to open the straits that were already open before this debacle" is a laughable spin attempt.
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