
Germany Reacts to Trump's UNGA Speech
About this video
A short Bloomberg clip from the 2018 UN General Assembly. Trump warns that Germany will become dependent on Russian energy, and German delegates are shown reacting with laughter.
Why it appears in the archive
Cited in 2022 energy-crisis threads, mostly critically, as proof that Germany was warned about Russian gas dependence.
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From the Hacker News discussion
>He was saying the USA should leave NATO. Ah yes, the other line that people pull when questioned on this topic. First, Trump did not say that the US should leave NATO. He publicly insisted/cajoled/prodded with that signature Trump charm and style that Germany and other NATO members who don't meet the 2% of GDP spending requirement—and showed zero inclination of actually meeting the 2026 deadline (itself pushed back repeatedly after first being set in 2006)—needed to do so. >In our day and age you should be arrested as traitor for saying that. Beyond the strange notion that an American should be "arrested as a traitor" for his words, a "traitor" to whom? Who benefits more from NATO membership, the US or Germany? Who benefits more, the US or Belgium? The US or Norway? The US or Italy? Would a Russian conquest of all of Ukraine endanger US security? Not really. It is Poland that would have Russian troops on hundreds more miles of its borders. It is Poland and the Baltic states that now face the risk being cut off from the rest of NATO at the Suwalki Gap. The funny thing is that Poland and the Baltics do meet the 2% spending requirement, and have so for years. It is the likes of the far wealthier Germany, Belgium, Norway, Italy that do not. When you say that a US president should have been "arrested as a traitor" for questioning the value ("obsolete", I believe he said) of a military alliance in which the US funded 69% of total military spending while the wealthiest other member
Read original comment ↗It's unfortunate that this was the take by EU politicians when everyone's favorite villain, Trump, was telling the EU nations to increase its NATO spending to the 2% guideline and was telling Germany to get off its Russian gas addiction or face the consequences. [1] Well, Germany (and its politicians: shown laughing at Trump in the video) are now paying the consequences of blindly walking into yet another trade deal with yet another autocratic power. [2] You'd think playing host to the horrors of WWII would have taught Germany a lesson or two of the consequences of such powers but no, it's business as usual. [3] The naivety of the EU in global politics would be laughable if it wasn't directly funding the artillery barrages and murder of more than a hundred children now by Russia. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]
Read original comment ↗Reminds me of the German UN delegates smugly laughing at Trump when he said that dependence on Russian oil is a bad thing: [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗>Government leaders at every level invested real money, time, and effort in building actual infrastructure. These are the same leaders who, when Trump at the UN warned four years ago that Germany is endangering itself by increasing dependence on Russia, laughed on camera (< [VIDEO] >). Germany is now facing the consequences of the greatest mistake its leaders have made in 80 years, an existential threat to the German (and thus European) economy and even nation-state. You know this . Yet you instead lecture the USA—home of Tesla—on how ACKSHUALLY it need to build more e-infrastructure. The mind boggles.
Read original comment ↗>Half of these idiots have resigned or are close to resignation due to an energy and food crisis that they have single-handedly created by the "free world" the last decade. They will just resign and live of their pensions while the rest of Europe is slipping into poverty. Such as German foreign minister Heiko Maas, who when Trump at the UN warned four years ago that his country is endangering itself by increasing dependence on Russia, laughed with other German envoys < [VIDEO] >. He is now enjoying a quiet retirement in Saarland.
Read original comment ↗Let's name names. Trump, the abovementioned president, at the UN in 2018 warns that Germany is endangering itself by increasing dependence on Russia. German envoys laugh < [VIDEO] >, including foreign minister Heiko Maas, today enjoying a quiet retirement back home in Saarland.
Read original comment ↗>“Ninety-nine per cent of the text of the articles of association is about climate and environmental protection, but 99 per cent of the money comes directly from Nord Stream II AG, which belongs to Gazprom.” >“It’s quite a curious foundation. It is a puppet construction,” said Sascha Müller-Kraenner, head of Environmental Action Germany, a green charity, which is challenging the legality of the organisation both in the German courts and with the European Commission. [LINK] and German politicians from pretty much every single party have been taking bribes from Russia for years. Their energy policy of simultaneously shutting down coal but not spinning up any nuclear made them reliant on Russian natural gas, which they've been warned about by the US for years and are now paying the price for from 2019 - [LINK] and a video from 2018 of Germany's UN delegation quite literally laughing at the suggestion they'd be reliant on Russia for energy if they proceeded with Nordstream 2. Some good schadenfreude here- [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗Not just ignored. Trump at the UN warns that Germany is endangering itself by increasing dependence on Russia. [German envoys laugh.]( [VIDEO] ). Among the comedians is Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, now enjoying a quiet retirement back home in Saarland. (The YouTube comments are hilarious.)
Read original comment ↗