Really? Kudos? Really?Trump has received kudos for pressuring Allies to meet their defense targets.
But let's be real here, that's about all he's doing. There are two portions to NATO financing, the shared equity to run the HQ (about $2.5 billion dollars) and then each country contributes its military forces (roughly aligned to a minimum of 2% of their GDP).
Trump whined a bunch about how Europe wasn't paying their fair share, and so NATO agreed to cut the US portion of the $2.5 billion from 22% to 16%. Which saves us a whopping $150 million dollars. Which is about the same amount of money we have spent on security and logistics letting him play golf at Mar-a-lago over three years. So that's more or less a wash, unless you consider moving the money from US commanders in Belgium to Florida a huge win.
The agreement to spend 2% of GDP was negotiated in the Obama administration in 2014. You don't have to believe me, you can read the official announcement from the Wales Summit here. Again, while I do appreciate that Trump has been vocal about having Allies meet that requirement, I'm not going to bestow master negotiator kudos to the man who didn't negotiate anything on the matter, and more or less yells are Merkel like I yell at my kids in the hopes something gets done.
So much,so many, you're downplaying his ability to do deals? Yea, those kudos are working, except they didnt work for you according to your own statements.
Regardless of who or when the 2% was agreed upon, if it, like so many other laws ss from that admin aren't enforced, well hey howdy, dont thry look good on paper.
Sorta like using up the stocks of emergency stores in case of, oh, a epidemic or a pandemic, use them, dont replenish them, leave that too for the next guy.
So, is Trump complaining only when he's said there were so many things messed up before he got there?