On September 12, 2001, 24 hours after the September 11 attacks, representatives of the then 19 members

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

convened to invoke Article 5 of the

organization NATO

charter, which states that an armed attack on one member must be considered an attack against all of them. This was the first and only time Article 5 became law

ever

came into effect. For the

next next

NATO troops have been fighting for twenty years

together with

us in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

On Saturday, former President Trump went on a rampage

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO

during a meeting in Las Vegas.

We pay for NATO, and we don’t get much out of it, do we?

song

. And you know, I hate to tell you this about NATO: If we ever needed their help, let’s say we were attacked, I don’t believe they would be there. I do not believe it. I know the people. I know them. I don’t believe they would be there.

Trump has long talked about NATO as if it were some kind of outdated club where everyone is expected to pay contributions to a common pot, but

the US-America

has picked up everyone’s bill. That’s not how it works. NATO’s standalone budget is approximately $3.5 billion

,

of which we pay 16%,

or

approximately $560 million. A new aircraft carrier costs about twenty times as much. All other NATO expenditure takes the form of domestic defense expenditure by individual member states. When he was president, Trump was right to pressure other countries to spend more, but now that they are spending more, he doesn’t care or appreciate the change.

Trump’s smears against NATO are being used to reinforce his distortions about support for Ukraine. In his story, both are examples of how the United States is cheated by its alliances and foreign commitments. He claimed that we have spent over $200 billion on Ukraine, while the Europeans are on the hook for $20 billion.

This is also incorrect. According to the Ukraine Support Tracker,

in total help,

the European Union has contributed more to Ukraine than the United States. We have committed not more than $200 billion, but about $75 billion

in help

, about half of which is in military aid. The EU total is roughly 77 billion

euros, or about $83 billion. In terms of

part of

gross domestic productAs GDP

,

America USA

ranks 30th

in the front

Support for Ukraine, right behind Ireland and Malta.

We look better than you

only

count

only

military aid, for the simple reason that we have the hardware that Ukraine needs

;, etc

Malta, not so much. As my colleague Marc Thiessen of the American Enterprise Institute notes: Most importantly

at least for domestic political purposes

about our military aid

at least for domestic political purposes

is that it does not take the form of giving Ukraine a blank check, as many Republicans claim. Nearly 90% of military aid dollars stay in America, disproportionately in Republican districts and states, because they are used to buy the weapons that go to Ukraine.

If you care

American-American

relative military superiority, supporting Ukraine has been a huge deal that has humiliated and helped the Russian military

Unpleasant

updating ours and strengthening the security of our largest trading partner

without endangering American troops.

While it’s always useful to point out Trump’s thumbless grasp of the facts, none of this is exactly new information to people who actually care about the facts. The problem is how little facts seem to matter these days.

Before Russia

N

After the lawless invasion of Ukraine, the argument that NATO was outdated had some superficial plausibility. But now that Russia has repeatedly indicated that it has objectives that extend beyond Ukraine and target NATO members, those weak arguments have evaporated. Certainly, our allies believe the threat is very real.

And those are not the only threats on the world stage. Proxies for Iran killed three American soldiers in a drone strike in Jordan this weekend. Russia, China and Iran have become quite friendly. Our ally Israel is engaged in a bloody war with Hamas, an Iranian ally that sparked the conflict on October 1. 7. In short: this is the dumbest time to talk about how America should not honor its alliances and commitments.

Joep Chairman

Biden’s critics love it

to argue that when when it comes to Iran and China, weakness is provocative. They are right. But that also applies to Russia.

And tough talk can also indicate weakness. Trump’s denial of NATO might sound like political toughness to his fans. But what Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are hearing is proof of NATO’s weakness.

NATO, and our alliances in general, make America stronger. They allow us to project power globally at a fraction of the cost

so do it

in other ways. For those who disagree, it’s worth considering why the case was made against NATO

created by

the former president

makes

must be based on so many lies. If the facts were on Trump’s side, he would offer some.

@JonaDispatch