For Allies Who Need It, Trump’s Tough Love is the Finest Love of All

Tough Love Club: President Donald J. Trump confers near London with defense chiefs from NATO nations that have met the alliance's 2 percent military-budget commitment - December 4, 2019 – Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead.

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ABOARD AIR FORCE TWOHigh above the West Coast, flying home from a diplomatic mission to Asia, National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien reflected Monday on the notion that tough love is the finest love of all. Sometimes only a close friend has the concern or the courage to say what other won’t: Put down the fork, put away the bottle, and pay your bills, before you get into deeper trouble. Far better to hear such advice from a friend than from a boss, business partner, or banker.

“It’s counterintuitive to some on the Left, who believe that subservience, acquiescence, and enabling our friends somehow helps them,” O’Brien told me. “What helps them is to be candid, truthful, and frank with them about what we can and can’t do, and what we need them to do.”

Leftist Joe Biden foolishly denounces Trump’s therapeutic prodding of some U.S. strategic associates as a diabolical effort to “reject our allies” and “retreat from” the world.

O’Brien cites “burden sharing” as one example of Trump’s tough love. “It’s NATO increasing their defense spending by $400 billion over a 10-year period. That makes the West safer. It makes Europe safer.” 

This is precisely what President Donald J. Trump envisioned at his first Atlantic-alliance summit in May 2017. “NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,” Trump said, “for 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defense.”

“Since 2016, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted that European allies and Canada will have added $130 billion to their defense budget,” Heritage Foundation scholar Daniel Kochis explained. An additional $270 billion have been pledged through 2024. “This is unprecedented progress,” Stoltenberg declared.

The president also is pressuring Berlin to scrap the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would import Russian energy. “Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas,” Trump said in Brussels in July 2018. “You tell me, is that appropriate?”

Rather than let America’s friends — Chancellor Angela Markel and her people — become addicted to Kremlin-controlled energy, Trump urges Merkel to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas. While America and Germany sometimes disagree, the United States will not shut the gas spigots in deepest winter to demand concessions, as Vladimir Putin did in January 2009. Moscow halted gas to Ukraine, and downstream customers shivered. According to NBC News, “Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Poland reported substantial drops in supplies.” Putin did likewise with oil shipments to Belarus last January.

A back rub for Angela? No. Tough love? Yes.

“You see the Japanese starting to spend more money and improve their capabilities,” O’Brien stated. In fact, President Trump reportedly pressed Tokyo to quadruple its annual payments from $2 billion to $8 billion for some 54,000 U.S. GIs stationed there. “The President has made clear that allies and partners should contribute more to their shared defense,” a State Department spokesman told Reuters in November 2019.

In response, Japan will spend a record $55 billion on defense next year, 8 percent above 2020’s outlay. These funds will help acquire U.S. stealth fighters, among other arms.

“You also see increased defense spending in Taiwan, which is something that the president has been advocating for some time,” O’Brien said. Taiwan’s cabinet announced last month a 10.25 percent hike in next year’s military budget totaling US$1.5 billion. Taipei spent $1 billion in August for 66 U.S. F-16V fighter jets and plans to purchase some $10 billion in U.S. mines, drones, coastal-defense cruise missiles, and other weapons that should give China pause.

While Joe Biden and Hate Trump, Inc. hammer the president for expecting America’s friends to fulfill their potential, the national security advisor believes this approach spreads good in multiple directions. “All of these things make those countries safer,” Robert C. O’Brien said. “They have the result of strengthening our alliances.”

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. Bucknell University’s Michael Malarkey contributed research to this opinion piece. Murdock has known O’Brien since they won college scholarships from the Washington Crossing Foundation in the 1980s.


Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research.


  1. Countries around the world cannot wait until president Harris and dementia joe take over so that the free foreign aid money will start flowing again and they can once again take advantage of Americans courtesy of dummies in the White House!!!!

    1. I heard the inmates of California, are taking advantage of the COVID relief funds, from unemployment insurance… 100’s of millions, so far….

  2. Only an idiot, or an enemy of then state would vote for a creep like Biden. The BEAST (Fake News, a conglomerate of news agencies pretending to be fair, but are biased Democrats ). They censor, suppress, and manufacture lies and stories designed to demean their political opponents. Who do they hate? God fearing Patriots. Conservatives, and all decent folks .Have they bought our Nine Supreme Court Justices? We will soon see. If they do not throw out all those ballots that were sent out unsolicited by crooked judges, then we will know who they love. God or Satan!

    1. Just by looking at bacement Dweller Bidens Popularity, Biden/Harris Soul of the Nation Tour/Rally, Two stops in Arizona, Stop 1. No one came, 1 Police car, the Media was there, But they newer left the Bus, Stop. 2, 3.+ a Dog. and Biden won AZ.?? All 8, Stops Total with Nobummers 3, stops. than they added Lady GaGa, a nd BonJovi. put it all together, 431. specktators Compear to Trumps fan club, 4, Rallies, (( 85.000 )) plus the longest lines ever, the biggest Trump Boat parades ewer. And Biden Won,?? As NoBummer Said, “The Americans are to Stupid to Understand” Think he was refearing to the DemonRats.!!

      1. couldn’t have said it better ,plus a 90 mile car convoy for Trump in texas , no president ever has had such a following . and Stephen Crowder pointed out in some dem infested counties ,turn out to vote was 15-20% compared to 80% in republican areas . They had to cheat so badly they got caught ,ha ha , good job . Time for a complete overhaul of election process ,or , Americans you have my permission to go full ‘revolting’ on the swamp ,that is what the 2nd is there for .

    2. The dem party is probably trying to cover there tracks by following there 3rd time failed presidential candidate Hellary now by burning and shredding ballots and smashing those missing usb chips. There motto, – Lie, Cheat what ever it takes.

      1. Now’s the time to take the stand against the theft of elections by the dems for over the last 4 decades, at least. This fight is for ” all the marbles” and the soul of our nation. It a peaceful solution is not obtained, the alternative will be much worse than what can be imagined. Most of us have little or no trust in the national law enforcement agencies so now would be a good time for them to show good faith and prosecute all those involved in election fraud.

  3. What ELIOT said is ALL true. However, SATAN may seem to be winning now, but GOD will SAVE AMERICA…..The ONLY SALVATION FOR MANKIND. Shining city on the hill !!!!
    American’s will NEVER give up our FREEDOMS !! Like the PHOENIX rise up from the ashes !!!!

  4. FED UP
    Yes, I am fed up also. But why would God save America? We have murdered 60,000,000 of His children, returned to Sodom, and chased after every false god imaginable. And we think we are good and deserve saving?
    We need to repent like the great city of Nineveh, when God sent Jonah to them. Get off our luxurious complacency, put on the sack cloth of repentance, and get on with the ashes of actually making America great again. Act as We The People. Shut down the abortion mills, put the sodomites back in their filthy closet, protect Christ’s Church – you know the Democrat Terrorists will do the same to any center of American freedom if they take power.
    If we are just going to continue in our national sins why would we expect help from God?

    1. You are so on the right track ,amen !. I am greatly heartened though that it looks like Trump got an actual record turn out ,possibly 80% of voters voted for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness . Looks like The lord has put a man in the white house that will not back down or turn away , may even get a 3rd term too .

  5. Alone and forsaken by fate and by man, the BEAST has him cornered. Judges allowed the Democrats to send out millions of unsolicited, or monitored, or verified legal ballots. Now it is up to the Supreme Court to decide his, and our countries fate. Will they sell out to Satan? Will we become a Socialist regime dancing to China’s tune? Will Freedom be lost? Will we become Slaves Without Chains, ruled by other men’s brains? Who owns the Judges, God or Satan? In just a few days we will know!

  6. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL YOU PATRIOTS!

    Buckle up. We’re in for the ride of our lives!
    I’m so sad, I can hardly think straight.

    1. I said Barr should have and could have stopped the ballotts from going out. He also let the FBI drop Hillary’s case. she needs to be held accountable FIRE HIM.

  7. It’s really a shame the President Trump lost the election last summer when he accepted the distributions of millions of unsolicited ballots-many from deceased folks, illegal aliens and otherwise unqualified or disinterested peoples. All the good works will go down the tube as we descend into socialism

    1. You are facing the wrong direction…
      Turn around and walk away from the Liberals…
      Hell, I would run, if I were you!

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