On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” CNN host and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria stated that while he’s critical of President Donald Trump’s approach to the Ukraine-Russia war, “I give President Trump a lot of credit for getting the NATO countries, the Europeans, to spend more on defense,” something that is “essential.”
Zakaria said, “I give President Trump a lot of credit for getting the NATO countries, the Europeans, to spend more on defense, reaching higher targets. They’re even talking about getting close to 5% now. That is all great and essential. And President Trump really does deserve credit. This is a kind of tough love situation.”
He continued, “But it doesn’t really apply in Ukraine. In Ukraine, what the Europeans were already doing was spending more than the United States was. They were not spending it on military aid. They were spending, mostly, keeping Ukrainians’ pensions alive, salaries alive. Ukraine is running essentially on European money. What the Americans were doing was providing military aid. So, you have to understand, the European money would go to the Ukrainians, they would spend it. The American money came back to American defense contractors, 90% of it, because then Ukrainians would buy American arms. That combination is what we need.”
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