NATO, Trump’s Children & Obliteration – Top 3 Takeaways – June 26th, 2025 - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Takeaway #1: Who’s your daddy?
President Trump took NATO by storm. He went in. He succeeded. He left...but not without a little levity along the way and it was provided by none other than a member of the press corps from Sky News who asked President Trump: Mark Rutte (NATO Secretary General) Who is your friend.… He called you daddy. Do you regard your NATO allies, though, as kind of like children? Now to be clear the reporter was dead serious in asking this question. There were two aspects to the answer that were hilarious. The first was Secretary of State Marco Rubio who started cracking up, first when the question was asked but more so when President Trump said: He did. He did it. Very affectionate. Daddy, You're my daddy. He then went on to very diplomatically handle the question when she followed up with: You're obviously appreciative of that. But do you hope that actually they're going to be able to defend themselves, defend Europe on their own. Anyway, I was with Rubio on that one and it’s better Trump than me because what came to mind when I heard the question was – yes, petulant children. Which, when you think about it, it basically has been the case. The reason why, going back to his first administration, President Trump has been adamant about NATO countries increasing defense spending is because as Americans we’ve been effectively taken advantage of by our allies who’ve abused what NATO actually is. Under NATO guidelines, if any NATO country is attacked, it’s considered an act of war against all members. This, is why for example, Ukraine has been forever attempting to become a member – because what Zelensky and company want most, is for us (and the us being NATO but mostly the US) to fight their war with Russia. Anyway, given this reality, our “allies” have intentionally underinvested in defense knowing that A) They’re protected against aggression by the auto alliance with the United States and that B)...
Takeaway #2: If there is a military need that arises it’s the U.S. to the rescue
Most recently the United States’ share of NATO country defense expenses is 68.7%. 68.7! There are 32 NATO nations! The United States only makes up 35% of NATO’s population. What this means is that the United States, you and me, are paying almost literally double the freight in defense spending to account for what our allies aren’t spending. Adjusted for population, we have literally been paying twice as much as the other 31 NATO countries. So yeah, petulant children and if you want to be treated like an adult, get a job, move out, pay your bills, and act like an adult. Stop living off mom and dad (or daddy as the case happens to be). And that’s effectively what President Trump accomplished at NATO when all countries, but Spain agreed to up their spending level to 5% of GDP which will result in those countries paying for their population adjusted share of their own defense needs. And as for Spain, Trump made it clear that they’d pay one way or another. When asked what he thought of Spain being the lone country not to sign off on the agreement, Trump said they’d being paying twice as much for their trade deal with us (meaning tariffs). There have already been two historic military wins this week. The first happened with the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities and the second, NATO countries paying their share for their own defense, has the potential to save us hundreds of billions of dollars over the near term and trillions of dollars for future generations. But about Iran’s nuclear facilities they’re...
Takeaway #3: Obliterated
Which Israeli intelligence on the ground has confirmed- saying that at a minimum Iran’s nuclear program has been set back “many years”, if not completely destroyed – countering the fake news claims of a “leaked” low level confidence report widely reported over the previous day. And while at the NATO presser on Wednesday, President Trump had this to say: A statement came in from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel. And reading from the statement he said: The devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable. It was devastated. We assessed that the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities had set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come. This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material. Trump then once again added what he’s said since the attack – the site is obliterated. And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, which btw, look at what an impressive job he has done thus far – highlighted by covertly pulling off Saturday’s remarkable B-2 bombing mission – you aren’t hearing people talk about he’s not qualified for the job or a drunk or any of that junk any longer. But anyway, Hegseth said: There's a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is. These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders. The skill and the courage it took to go into enemy territory flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people and the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom. And then the instinct, the instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times, is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons, to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don't care what the troops think. They don't care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak. Of course, we've all seen plenty of leakers and what a leakers do? They have agendas. And what do they do? Do they share the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce? And with that Hegseth obliterated the fake news.