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From california. great to have you here. we have some diplomats that watch this show and actually some people from other countries that watch the show. so as the chairman of the foreign affairs committee i m going to ask you a couple of questions. is nato still important to the united states? nato is important to our security and the security of our allies. how important? i think it s critical but i think it s also critical our nato allies step up and pay their part of the freight. how important of an ally is germany? is angela merkel? germany is a very conversations subsequential ally to the united states. you would say obviously you have more trust in angela merkel than vladimir putin? correct. you would not put them on the same level. these are a lot of hard questions. does should it matter to the united states whether the european union continues or not? ....
Screeching and whining and crying and gnashing of teeth, i don t think you can do that from tweets and these disjointed interviews where a lot of times there aren t even complete thoughts. that s why the whole article, even then when you read the whole article, natuo s alliance is not news, saying that makes headlines. it leaves european allies and we should be strengthening and solidifying at this stage our allies, we need our allies. instead he, again, seems to be picking a fight with them. yes, a lot of nato countries don t pay what they should pay. balkan states don t. they are working on getting to it. they should. they will get it in there. but so we ll see. what s remarkable, the dollar strong, markets strong, the markets seem to hate uncertainty. that s what i think he ....
In terms of where he is, the other question i have for him is how much does he see himself as sort of a global leader of this nationalistic movement, which you do see spreading throughout europe with profound consequences. what he talked about with eu is what a lot of people say with eu. dynamics here, unfolding in britain, germany, france, the question is how much does he want to be a leader of that movement? general, it seems to me, based on what we ve seen and with donald trump over the past 40 years, everything he s doing right now is an opening bid. it an opening bid for nato kungs to pay up. an bid for china. even showed his hand when somebody said you re going to use 40, 45% tariffs. he sa he said, no, basically said during the campaign, that s just my opening statement, my opening line. seems like everything right now ....
Paying what they are supposed to. five. it s not much. so this is, rick, the problem with the news coverage over the last couple of days. i read new york times and read negative comments about merkel. you don t read the part where trump is saying merkel is a great, great, great leader, a most important leader. i like her. same with nato. you hear nato is obsolete. that s horrifying. you don t hear him saying nato is very important to me. i brought this point up yesterday for the reason why the new york times is bringing it up today. anyone that goes into that times of london interview or other interviews with a lot of disjointed statements and though thoughts, trying to glean u.s. foreign policy from those interviews is taking their own professional life into their own hands because i just don t think there s a lot of ....
And said, quote, i think we europeans have our fate in our own hands, adding i m personally going to wait until the american president takes office. then we will naturally work with him on all levels. but trump had also praised merkel plenty of times in that interview with the times of london. when asked who is the most important leader in europe, trump responded, i would say merkel is by far the most important leader because you look at the uk and you look at the european union, it s germany. he also said i have great respect for her. i felt she was a great, great leader. i think she made one very catastrophic mistake, and that s taking all these illegals, you know, taking all the people from wherever they come. nobody really knows where they come from. besides saying nato is obsolete, he also said a lot of these countries aren t paying what they are supposed to be paying, which i think is very unfair to the united states. with that being said, nato is very important to me. there s fi ....