{"id":129116,"date":"2019-03-11T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T12:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=129116"},"modified":"2019-03-18T07:18:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T07:18:45","slug":"trump-to-world-pay-up-for-hosting-us-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/03\/trump-to-world-pay-up-for-hosting-us-troops\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to World: Pay Up for Hosting US Troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8 Mar 2019 – <\/em>President Trump wants countries to pay up<\/a> for hosting American troops.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s doubling down his demands.<\/p>\n

For years, Trump has criticized countries hosting U.S. troops for not paying their fair share.<\/p>\n

Trump is now advocating for a plan to make Germany, Japan, and other countries hosting U.S. troops to pay in full plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them on their soil.<\/p>\n

The \u201cCost Plus 50\u201d formula may even necessitate that countries pay five to six times as much as they do for housing troops.<\/p>\n

Trump has been using this to nudge NATO partners to increase their own defense spending, an issue Trump has raised ever since taking office. Trump claims<\/a> that his pressure has led NATO members to increase their spending, however he believes that the pace of spending increases has been too slow.<\/p>\n

In a speech to the Pentagon on January 17, Trump said\u00a0\u201cWealthy, wealthy countries that we\u2019re protecting are all under notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump added:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot be the fools for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

This move has gotten some natural pushback from the military-industrial complex<\/a>, who believes that Trump\u2019s emphasis on \u201cCost Plus 50\u201d would be a \u201clarge affront to stalwart U.S. allies in Asia and Europe already questioning the depth of Trump\u2019s commitment to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, correctly asserts that Trump\u2019s insistence on countries paying up is all about them having \u201cskin in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. is long overdue for a restrained foreign policy that ultimately makes other countries assume their defense responsibilities.<\/p>\n

With over 70 bases in 800 countries<\/a>, the U.S. is simply over-stretched and potentially leaving its own borders vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Countries like Germany, Japan, and South Korea are already First World nations with plenty of wealth to invest in defense services. The U.S. can no longer afford to be the country that military bails out the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

If a country wants to exist as a sovereign nation, it must have \u201cskin in the game\u201d and make necessary sacrifices such as spending for national defense purposes.<\/p>\n

America First means defending U.S. borders not other nations\u2019 borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cCost Plus 50\u201d is a good first step in scaling back U.S. presence in foreign countries.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 bigleaguepolitics.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Mar 2019 – President Trump wants countries to pay up for hosting American troops. Trump is now advocating for a plan to make Germany, Japan, and other countries hosting U.S. troops to pay in full plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them on their soil. In a speech to the Pentagon on January 17, Trump said \u201cWealthy, wealthy countries that we\u2019re protecting are all under notice. We cannot be the fools for others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":129117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}