Hi rambot,
Good question. I think that in his short time in office, President Trump has made claims and comments that aren't particularly truthful or fair towards many of the EU nations. Previously, the U.S. has always had a fairly cordial relationship with our European partners and other European nations. President Trump has not made any attempt really to continue that. It is my understanding that he was pretty downright petty in his words to Angela Merkel in their last meeting together.
President Trump's nature is to be petty and mean. He has literally railed constantly day and night that none, not any, of the trade agreements that we have hammered out with other nations have been fair to the U.S. I don't believe that's a true or fair assessment. You see, I believe that the truth for Donald Trump is that if it doesn't give him a hand up over everyone else, then it isn't fair. Nation agreements can't be structured on such a premise. They are people just like us who are trying to live fairly nice lives just like us, trying to keep their people employed just like us. We aren't, just because we may have a stronger economy or greater military, really better, as individual people that collectively make up the body of a nation any better than they are. China has a right, as a governed body of people, to hammer out agreements with other nations that make some things good for them and some things good for the other guy.
Despite Donald Trump's battle cry to 'make America great again', his effort to do that is to deal unfairly with other nations so that he gets to feel that he's the better person; the better leader; the better man. While some forms of government may be better than others in allowing its citizens what we call 'freedoms', the individual men and women who make up those nations are just trying the best they can to do the best they can to raise their families the best they can. They need fair trade agreements that provide benefits for them and their families just as much as we do. But, Donald Trump doesn't think like that. He's not wired to have any empathy for the 'losers' of the world. It's always been and always will be all about HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, he wants you to believe that in making it all about him, he's also going to bring you along for the ride. Don't believe it for a minute!
The NAFTA trade agreement is a fairly equitable trade agreement. The Europacific trade agreement is also a fairly equitable trade agreement. For all the parties involved. No one nation is getting particularly wealthier than another in any of these agreements. But, no, none of these agreements were hammered out on the basis that it's all got to be about what the U.S. gets out of it and the rest of you be damned! However, that's the only way that Donald Trump knows to operate and sadly, that's also the general understanding of his base. That the U.S. is made up of a bunch of self-righteous, better than anyone else people and if world agreements aren't good for us then they aren't good for anyone.
President Trump is a bigot. He's selfish. There is absolutely nothing about him morally that makes him a good person. He's a liar and a cheat. Hopefully we can, as a nation, make it through this next 3.5 years without suffering any major damage. Of course, the way things have been looking, we're liable to find ourselves in 3.5 years exactly where we are now. Nothing having gotten done of any substantive value because he can't lead his administration in a manner that actually gets anything done.
That's just my opinion and understanding of the man, but I'm confident that it is based on evidence and not just the emotions of some disenfranchised citizen.
God bless you all,
In Christ, ted
