Trumps Rede zur Steuerreform: Reden wir mit unseren Freunden über Verteidigungsausgaben

US-Präsident Donald Trump hat am (gestrigen) Mittwoch seine Pläne für eine Steuerreform vorgestellt – die ganze Rede ist unter verschiedenen Aspekten eine Betrachtung wert. Hier nur fürs Archiv der Hinweis auf eine Passage der Rede, die sich – wieder mal – mit den aus Trumps Sicht zu niedrigen Rüstungsausgaben der Verbündeten befasst und da eine härtere Gangart der USA androht:

And we’re going to work on trade, but we’re also going to work on military. When we defend nations that are very wealthy, and we do it for almost nothing, I say, why are we defending them? We love them. I won’t mention names, but there are a lot of them. We love them. They’re wealthy.
One of them has a cash flow that they say is unsustainable, it’s so large. Think of that. How would you like to have an unsustainable cash flow? They don’t know what to do with their money. And we defend them. It’s going to change, folks.

We’re going to defend them, but they’re going to treat us fairly. And they’re going to pay for their defense. Does that make sense? (Applause.)
And a lot of this is from many, many years ago, when we defended a defeated country and then they became strong and they became rich and we just kept the same defense. What happened? Why didn’t anybody go in and negotiate?
And when I was in Asia, I spoke to a couple of the countries about it, and they looked like this. Do you know what this is? (Laughter.) That means they know they’re getting away with murder and they got to start helping us out, okay? So if you don’t mind, I’ll start bringing that up with some of our good friends. (Applause.)

Hm, die Aussage Ich werde das bei einigen unserer guten Freunde zur Sprache bringen klingt schon ein bisschen nach Gesprächen auch mit Berlin.

(Andererseits, als Hinweis: der scheidende Chef der US Army Europe, Generalleutnant Ben Hodges, verwies vorgestern in Berlin darauf, dass die Regierung Trump in Europa militärisch bislang all das gemacht habe, was Trumps Vorgänger Barack Obama angekündigt und gebilligt hatte.)

(Archivbild: President Donald Trump participates in a tax reform kickoff event at the Loren Cook Company, Wednesday, August 30, 2017, in Springfield, Missouri – Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)