Thread by @BrajanKot

@davidfrum @azelin 1).
„At a conference on European security, the opioid dispenser may tell you that @realDonaldTrump is hostile to the European allies because they do not spend enough on defense.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump 2).
If that were true, then you’d think that increasing defense spending would allay Trump’s hostility. Instead, the administration’s de facto chief operating officer, @elonmusk, publicly insulted Poland,

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk 3).
America’s European ally with the most robust defense program on the continent, now funded to the level of almost 5 percent of GDP.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk 4).
A few days earlier, Trump’s @VP @JDVance gave a television interview in which he mocked »random« countries that »have not fought a war in 30 to 40 years« – widely seen as a slighting reference to France and Britain (though he denied it).

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 5).
This came days after the United Kingdom announced the biggest, most sustained rise in defense spending since the end of the Cold War. (France had already committed, in 2023, to a near doubling of its defense spending over the subsequent seven years.) Shortly before his jibe,

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 6).
the vice president gave a speech in Munich in which he championed Europe’s pro-Russian parties of the far right and far left. Whatever’s going on here, it is not about a wish for more allied defense spending.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 7).
Justifying Trump’s abject support of Russia, another opioid dispenser will explain the pro-Russia tilt as actually a grand strategy to counter China.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 8).
That sounds lofty. But the claim unravels upon contact with reality. For sure, an American president who wanted to counter the world’s second-largest economy would want to mobilize strong allies.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 9).
But Trump has aggressively alienated allies, starting with America’s two immediate neighbors and its historical partners in Europe and the Pacific Rim. It’s not just that Trump wants Russia as an ally; he seems to want nobody else – except maybe Saudi Arabia and El Salvador.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 10).
Meanwhile, the @realDonaldTrump administration is not actually standing up to China at all forcefully. During his latest campaign, Trump dismissed Taiwan as undeserving of U.S. protection because it »doesn’t give us anything«.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 11).
Trump’s ravaging of U.S. foreign-aid programs concedes major influence to China, especially in Africa. @elonmusk is significantly vulnerable to Chinese economic pressure on his large business in that country.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 12).
@realDonaldTrump himself has taken a huge sum from a Chinese investor for his crypto operations.

Trump’s enthusiasm for Russian [dictator] Vladimir Pootin – and avidity for Russian money – dates back 20 years.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance 13).
At a time of economic desperation, Trump earned $54 million on the flip of a Palm Beach property. His former lawyer Michael Cohen told @MSNBC that @realDonaldTrump regarded the profit to be the result of Putin’s personal influence.

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance @MSNBC 14).
Whatever explains the Trump-Putin bond, acclaiming it as a brilliant, Kissinger-like diplomatic pivot doesn’t pass the laugh test.”

Excerpt from an article by @davidfrum

March 12, 2025

@TheAtlantic archive.ph/03tIS

@davidfrum @azelin @realDonaldTrump @elonmusk @VP @JDVance @MSNBC @TheAtlantic Please unroll @threadreaderapp. Thank you in advance 𓃠