Scary Christian writer?

I was surprised to hear a Christian writer I respect say that Trump's first 100 days were the scariest he's experienced -- referring to tariffs and Doge (I think was his reasoning). 

Really?

 
Scarier than 9/11?

Scarier than Biden's bugout in Afghanistan?

Scarier than the enormous increase in medical costs and how we were lied to about Obamacare and Covid 19?

Scarier than 4 years of not knowing if the president could do anything more difficult than ordering his favorite ice cream?

 
Scarier than the U.S. being last place in first world countries in education despite 108% (inflation adjusted) increase in spending recently--despite we were first before the Dept. of Education was created?

 
Scarier than setting learning back 2 years for all the children in public schools and knowing they have to enter the work world and compete with China with that deficit?

 
Scarier than the huge violations of our rights during the Covid shutdown, including freedom of religion when churches were closed?

 
Scarier than mandatory vaccines and the growing increase in physical harm being revealed especially among the young?

Scarier than millions of illegals flooding our borders and at least 2 million getting social security cards so they can vote?

 
Scarier than Americans thinking USAID was about "aid" and not about agency for international development (aka foreign influence and control)?

Scarier than having Democrats create and use Lawfare to destroy the Republican candidate?

 
Scarier than knowing Democrats set Trump up for assassination because who else hated him that much and were terrified that he would uncover their crimes?

 
Scarier than what's been uncovered by Doge--payoffs to the media, grants frittering away American billions on foolish and dangerous political agendas harmful to our nation?

 
Scarier than a proxy war in Ukraine and a religious war in the Middle East?

Scarier than finding out how unfair the tariff system has been for at least 40 years and Donald Trump has been telling us that the whole time and no one listened?

Scarier than the ugly face of anti-Semitism that we see on Democrat controlled college campuses, especially the elite Ivy League 

Scarier than how the Democrat media yawned at the bombing of Jewish governor Josh Shapiro's home, but are excited about socialists AOC and Bernie fund raising? And how Democrats passed Josh Shapiro over for Tim Walz for vice president?

And I could go on, but that Christian writer needs to dig deeper. The only perfect guy with no faults rose from the dead.

The Democrat Party "democracy" they say we'll lose

Glenn Greenwald reminds us that the 2016 Democrat election (primaries) were rigged to favor Clinton over Sanders. In 2024 they had NO primaries--no voters had a choice. This is the "Democracy" the Democrats say we'll lose if Trump is elected. Power and money run the party, not the voters.

https://youtu.be/e37KAAbespU?si=tGRuNChL-EyC99tR

The electoral college whine

Hillary Clinton opined again this past week at the vaudeville virtual convention that she won. She wasn't defeated in 2016, she was defeated in the Democrat primaries in 2008, by Barack Obama. She had more votes, in those days feminism won out over color, but Obama got the winner take all, electoral style system Democrats use in their primaries. After 8 years she was too old, too exhausted and too ill to pull it off. By the same token, Sanders won, but Joe Biden walked off with the prize. Bernie's no dummy, however, and has most of the power over the Biden message and campaign. You could call it the Harris-Sanders ticket.

The Democrat Convention to elect Joe Biden

So what are we to make of the virtual vaudeville virtue signaling we witnessed this week called the Democrat Convention?

American flags, the Constitution, the Star Spangled banner, singing children, and a motherly chat from a former FLOTUS who not too long ago admitted she didn't like us much while her husband reminded us that we didn't build that (hint: slaves did according to BLM whom he won't condemn). That sweet cotton candy side show was to convince the moderates and independents that they really hadn't seen two months of rioting in Democrat plantation cities; they really hadn't witnessed their elected leaders voting to kill the oppressed and helpless babies not yet born.

The race to fantasy land started with a speech by their most prominent Socialist Bernie Sanders claiming that we are experiencing the most serious health crisis in 100 years, the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, a climate disaster, and a weak, directionless leader at the helm. He then accused that weak leader of being an "authoritarian and a bigot," and that's code for Hitler in Dem-Speak. Well, which is it Bern? Is he a sniveling weakling getting sand kicked in his face or is he Hitler?

Do we have an "authoritarian" in the White House who demanded every Democrat be masked and silent as the 50 governors have done, one who will usurp all power of the states and shut down businesses and churches? I think not. Democrats would have really raged if that had happened. Oh yes, and he warned of an oligarchy--Bernie said the power is there. That sent everyone to the dictionary. That's a small clutch of power brokers. But that describes Big Tech and woke corporations, the ones who've bought into the "systemic racism" chant of the rioters and academics, who approve of NFL revolting (peacefully) against the national anthem, painting BLM on the streets of NYC, and forced pronouns in the work place.

Or do you, Bernie, want a president who is cozy (with his son Hunter) with the Communist Party of China, the country of origin of the virus that struck down the most powerful economy the world has ever seen? Team Biden loves authoritarian China that requires everyone with a cell phone have an APP for Xi Jinping so all citizens can be reeducated in the glorious words and philosophy of the president for life. That's the president you're seeking to install in the White House?

Comrade Bernie is 50 years behind

“Europeans, then, having learned that socialism does not work, are trying to narrow our gap with the United States with various reforms—just as Bernie Sanders, 50 years too late, seeks to emulate Europe. Doesn’t Sanders know that his program has been applied in Europe, and failed? He must: and this would mean that his true ambition is not free health care or free college, but a deeper transformation of the United States. Perhaps he hates the free-market society and wants to replace it with a socialist, egalitarian one, overseen by the “tyranny of the benevolent,” which Tocqueville warned against.

Why would so many American voters find Sanders’s socialism attractive? For the same reasons that socialism was once popular in Europe: the love for equality over individual freedom; the illusion of a safe life, guaranteed by a benevolent state; the allure of transferring personal responsibility to a public nurse. Then as now, these offers exert a strong psychological appeal; the answer to them is reality. Socialism does not work—but perhaps one needs to live through it to be convinced.”

https://www.city-journal.org/bernie-sanders-socialist-vision

The crazy candidates, pandering, lying, bluffing and bullying

So Bernie Sanders wants to legalize drugs and fund  the black community to sell them legally. He lauds Cuba for have a literacy program, but doesn’t mention they have nothing to read that isn’t controlled by the government.

Joe Biden believes 150,000,000 Americans have been killed by guns in the last 13 years—half the population. He also said he was running to be Senator.

Mike Bloomberg says stop and frisk saved millions of lives, but he’s sorry now he was for it before he was against it. He has no core values or programs to propose except confiscate guns.

Elizabeth Warren seems to have nothing to say except loud and shrill.

Pete Buttigeig has no claim to fame except a male husband. How does that help him carry out his socialist ideas?  His father was a Communist—and although not all men follow dad’s lead, he seems to.

And the bluffing on education?  These people don’t even know the federal Bureau of Labor figures.  The AVERAGE hourly rate for teachers is $67.00/hour.  And most states are already above the salary Saunders was saying would make a difference.

Universal pre-school?  Trillions spent from that War on Poverty Head Start program of the LBJ era, and it has not made a whiff of difference except to employ some of the parents and provide better nutrition, and it was not intended to be a jobs program.  Since it turned 50 a few years ago, I’m not sure there has been another definitive study—it was so dismal then.

https://fee.org/articles/no-fidel-castro-didnt-improve-health-care-or-education-in-cuba/

https://www.heritage.org/education/report/head-start-impact-evaluation-report-finally-released

The Democrats have shown their true colors—selected paragraphs

Don’t ever get on Melissa Mackenzie’s bad side—she can sling word porn. https://spectator.org/a-delayed-debate-response-socialists-go-wild/

“Finally, Americans are getting an earful of what Democrats believe. The worldview is paranoid and delusional, laced with toxic envy, irresponsibility, statism, and redistributionist fatalism. The world is terrible. The State will save you. Rich people are evil, and we must take their money. Life is hopeless, so murdering babies is actually what’s good for them.” . . .

“Joe Biden has a spot at Obama’s right hand. But he’ll never outshine Obama. He’s easily paid off. He’s a mumbling aw-shucks buffoon covering a vicious soul. He’s the perfect lackey. Lackeys don’t make good alphas. They succeed precisely because they can never be more than second fiddle; they don’t have the sociopathic malice to be in charge. And that’s why Biden is crumbling now. He’s the only likable candidate, but he’s stumbling and fumbling under pressure. He doesn’t have the heart for the kill shot like Elizabeth Warren or his BFF Barack. Joe Biden is finished. He just looks old. And yes, he would still fare best against Trump, but the foaming-at-the-mouth hordes will have none of it.” . . .

“[Elizabeth Warren] savaged Michael Bloomberg by comparing him unfavorably to Trump. This was like meth for the caffeine-addicted, a pure shot of speed into the veins of the media, who loves her. Bitter about their inability to push Hillary’s carcass over the line, the media has decided that a more energetic, more enthusiastic psychopath is the answer. She is a woman. It’s her time. Except it’s not her time. She’s stolen her policy positions from Bernie and doesn’t feel real to the teeth-baring Antifa thugs making up the Bernie, and now the Democrat, base. Elizabeth Warren of all the candidates is the one who genuinely scares me. It’s a relief to know that she won’t be the nominee.” . . .

“Bernie was mid-word and his face was a rosacea mask of murderous rage. Gah! One can stop the TV at any time with him and the expression is always the same. Why? Because communists are very, very angry people. Never mind that Bernie got rich being a “public servant.” Never mind that America is in the throes of an economic boom. None of that matters. The world is unfair. There shouldn’t be rich people.”

The two parties and their campaigns—so different

“Democrats still love to see themselves as representing the little guy against the big corporations. But in this century, their presidential nominees have outraised and outspent their Republican opponents, and they’ve been running ahead of Republicans in the highest income groups.

Yet as Democratic pols and pundits search for someone to stop Bernie Sanders, whom do they alight on? Not Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren, whose support has been visibly waning. Probably not on Pete Buttigieg, who’s struggling to win any perceptible support from blacks, or Amy Klobuchar, whose support seems confined to white college grads.

Instead they’re looking to Michael Bloomberg, with his $56 billion fortune. Over the past several weeks, he has passed some $400 million in campaign expenditures — the same amount former President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign spent over two years.”

 https://patriotpost.us/opinion/68740-democrats-dna-makes-them-feel-the-bern-2020-02-21

Bernie or Pete?

So far based on the bungled Iowa vote, the Democrats can choose between an elderly Socialist with a recent heart attack and an inexperienced, small town mayor whose only claim to fame is who he has sex with. I'm going to say they'll go with Mayor Pete given the Democrats tendency to want to be absolved of all the sins of their past so they can feel self-righteous while harassing Christians. The results will be the same: higher taxes, more regulations, less freedom, and less security.

How lifers make a living in Congress—Bernie Sanders

Some of my regular readers are old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years; he was ousted by Ronald Reagan because people were so upset by the economy. It was a terrible recession, and I didn't have a job in my regular field, library science, but found one being alert to gossip in my aerobic class.

Through my aerobics instructor, Corey, I got a temporary government contract job through JTPA (formerly CETA)  This is where the federal government takes your tax money, filters it through all the DC bureaucrats, then sends it to the states which employ a lot of people to fill out the forms to get it, where it is filtered through the state (Ohio) bureaucracy, then smaller programs are developed, where it is further spread out among local agencies and non-profits.

I worked for STEPS, Senior Training and Employment Program. Senior workers (over 50) had been hit particularly hard by that recession, so our little group of 5 or 6 went around the state putting on workshops and developing publications. It was a dream job for me, and I was employed. I even was able to write speeches for the head of the Bureau of Employment.

That's what most of these employment programs do--they employ the people who work in them. I don't know if a single person over 50 ever found a job due to our efforts, but probably thousands of government workers, either civil service, or grant temporary like me, or Area Agency on Aging employees, or the many training centers set up for teaching and skill development (private), the landlords who rented the space, or the small caterers who provided the lunches we served at the workshops managed to get through that recession. Plus, I met great people (state employees are fantastic) and had a good time--learned so much about how government works and why so many people sat alone in offices with nothing to do while we temporary workers were very busy.

This is a tiny picture of what Bernie and others in Congress have been doing for a living for their entire lives. They live well, but not much changes for the people who really need help.

Town Hall with candidate Bernie

Do the women who ask silly questions at Town Halls know the U.S. birth rate is below replacement rate? So are they asking the candidates to reduce the populations of black and brown countries? Do we have a name for that?

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/04/bernie-sanders-abortion-climate-change/

A member of the audience asked Socialist Sanders about human population growth during CNN’s climate town hall Wednesday. She specifically asked Sanders whether he would support measures to curb that growth.

Did the candidates talk about Baltimore?

When Bernie reported on Baltimore's conditions, the media and politicians did nothing. Same with Obama. Same with Baltimore's mayors. Now Trump has brought attention to the bad housing and crime and has forced Democrats to defend the indefensible. We know it's not money--Baltimore gets billions of our money. It's not having no representation in Congress--it's got Cummings the guy who screams at border personnel in hearings, or no minority police, or no minority city government, or no minority school officials. So what will help Baltimore?

If Democrats in congress spent any time in their own districts inspecting the conditions children live in, they wouldn't have enough time to go to the border to pose for phony photos of faux concern calling border facilities Nazi concentration camps.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49999/trump-called-racist-saying-baltimore-rat-infested-amanda-prestigiacomo
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-cummings-pelosi-and-baltimore-11564433687?fbclid=IwAR2gsBz0gEKPNTaUovaH7c-bk7AeD8L3ERSu4hqpqX-LddE6VkkQxCJtC9o

Bernie's immoral theft

Don’t underestimate the enemy

It concerns me that so many on social media underestimate Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She doesn't say stupid things--she twists about 10% truth and 90% star struck socialism. She's had great coaching, is attractive, media savvy, and like President Trump, will not be brought down by jokes and trolling. Unfortunately, her message appeals to many young people who will be voting. She and other leftists are after our first, second, fourth amendments, our faith, values, wealth, property, families, pronouns and they wish to destroy the results of the 2016 election.

She was hired by a leftist political agency to be a Trojan Horse inside the government. Attractive, well educated, "worker" background, uninformed district with low voter turnout, sycophant media coverage. The perfect storm.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You can't get away from the media going after every negative comment about Trump in the Mueller report, lifting sentences out of context--ignoring he's not guilty, nor is any American guilty of assisting Russia. That should be good news, but I think it displays how half the country is going to experience this.

I had ABC on this morning--they are just breathless, panting and drooling. I wonder how any of them would respond to charges against them when they knew they were innocent--like robbery of a neighbor or domestic violence accusations by an ex, and then an investigation of everyone including the doorman and manicurist who came in contact with them. Would denial, rage and evidence be considered obstruction? I know a few men and women battling the ex's for years over college tuition bills, medical bills, mortgage, and it goes on and on and they are desperate. I know people still carrying grudges and imagining things 30-40 years after a divorce.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Trump Derangement Syndrome defies belief: "On Thursday, a New York Post reporter tweeted that President Donald Trump played the song "Edelweiss" at the White House. The New York Times's White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman, suggested the song was a Nazi anthem, inspiring rightful backlash on Twitter. She seemed to stick with this false view, even after she was called out on it."  (PJ Media)  Nadler and Schiff are dying from this disease.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bernie Sanders at the Fox Town Hall this week claimed ending the life of a late term child was rare. . . "Terrorism doesn’t happen every day either. Does that mean we should shutdown Homeland Security? And if it’s so rare, then what’s the problem? End it. If murder is wrong, then it’s wrong every time. The law doesn’t suddenly kick when you hit a certain quota. If there’s a gunman on the scene, police don’t wait for the casualties to pile up before they act. A life is a life. I guarantee if it were Bernie Sanders’s child dying on a hospital table and doctors refused to treat him, he wouldn’t say, “Well, that’s your decision.” Rareness doesn’t equal rightness." --Tony Perkins.

Charitable donations by Democrat candidates

Oh yes, the tax returns are coming out.  We have a taxpayers Bill of Rights and #7 says you can’t be forced to share your information. But they are running for 2020 White House.  Bernie is a millionaire and Beto gives a few dollars for charity—probably donated his old cowboy boots or a truck to Volunteers of America and took a donation.

This has been known for years--not about Sanders specifically, but Democrats, liberals, progressives, etc. are not generous with their own money, but love to give away and transfer your wealth. Usually when they throw their hat into the ring, they up the donations (Obama’s donations soared in 2007). About 60% of the federal budget goes for safety net programs, and there are about 123 wealth transfer programs, then there are the local and state taxes. So I can see Dems say "I gave at tax time," but instead they'd rather complain that Republicans are stingy and don't care about the poor. The top 20% of earners pay 84% of the taxes, but that doesn't keep the Democrats from demanding socialism for the middle class.

Nothing helps a poor man like a job, and President Trump has certainly helped the poor.  And I’m on a pension (which doesn’t go up or down) but my own investments made more the first quarter than I ever did while working.  We shouldn’t become complacent, however.  Recessions go around about every decade.  There have been 2 since I retired in 2000.  So don’t stop being charitable just because of changes in tax laws.  That’s not why we do it.

This is Diana’s story—a former liberal with a big heart—guest blogger

My story   . . .

I went to the most liberal university in my very liberal state and got myself a degree in sociology. I was a full believer in socialism and Bernie was my hero in 2016. I devoted my working life to helping people. My first job out of college I worked with families involved with the child welfare system hoping to help reunify them with education and advocacy. That system was a little messy and I felt like I could do more to help people so I began a job working with the homeless just before Trump was elected. More on that in a minute . . .

At this time I was studying the results of a socialized healthcare system in countries like the UK and Australia because as a supporter of universal healthcare I wanted to put my money where my mouth was and get the full story on how it would affect Americans. I wanted to be the open minded person I claimed I was. What I learned is that people were losing rights to make their own healthcare choices such as seeking alternative treatment for a child with a terminal illness. Police were barricading hospitals keeping people in. Overall the quality of care for patients was not as good and people had a lot less choices to sum it up. Only good thing was it was “free” if you don’t count the high taxes. I could certainly provide some examples to anyone interested in learning more about that though. Anyway, I realized what a disaster it would actually be for America and I couldn’t support it. I did what all grown up girls should do and admitted I was wrong. Hillary was a war criminal and my formerly leftist self would never have supported her anyway so I did the next best thing and voted for Donald Trump on 11/6/16. The next morning when I learned he had won I was overcome with a sense of RELIEF that I don’t know where it originated. I felt it was a sign.

Continuing on with my work “helping the homeless”. So I worked in a program that would essentially pay for people (anyone that could claim they were homeless) to get an apartment and pay their rent for a short time until they got on their feet. Except that never really happened. We would pay rent for people who flat out refused to work and make a living until they ended up either being given a permanent housing voucher (which they knew was coming) or they got evicted and would come back through the program again later. The program worked in a “collaboration” with other agencies in the area. But this “collaboration” was very political. You weren’t allowed to point out that the program was essentially wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars per MONTH. You were however asked to lobby at the capitol for more funding for these extremely poor performing programs. It was all a dog and pony show. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have hard feelings for the homeless. But the ideas that most people are fed about homelessness is actually a fraction of what it really is. The really vulnerable homeless people that required quality help were mostly addicts and severely mentally ill, but this comprised maybe 15% of the people we were serving. The rest were capable people who just kept making poor decisions and expecting more and more money to pick up the pieces. The most important lesson I learned here is that subsidies and vouchers and other types of government help don’t solve the problem of poverty. It enables and perpetuates it. This is something I never would have understood before, when I was walking around with my Feel The Bern hoodie on.

The last straw for me was seeing how the liberal media demonized each and every thing our president does! Even good things like criminal justice reform that they could have no basis for criticizing, they just simply don’t report on it. It’s disgusting. I didn’t really like Obama--he was a war criminal and a phony to me but if he did something good I gave him credit for it. And seeing all my friends and family who supposedly believed in love and tolerance and understanding, demonizing people who voted for our president. I volunteered for my state GOP this past year and I was called racist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women’s rights, etc. JUST for being a registered Republican! People suddenly just seemed so deranged to me. I could go on forever about this really so I’m gonna stop here but I plan to make a blog post about my walk away story and will link it here when I do!

America’s socialists

I keep reading that 51-57% of Democrats favor socialism--more in the younger range, but enough in the 50+ to cause concern. Strange that they call Trump a Nazi. Our school system has failed them, even people my age and older who should know better, who remember Hitler, Mao and the USSR.

Socialism means the state controls the land and the means of production. The only difference between Hitler and Stalin was the length of their reach--one wanted just Europe and the other the world. Their hearts beat together. American Communists in the 1930s weren't worried about Hitler until he attacked their boy Stalin, then we entered the war.

Socialism is Communism-lite. It is a utopian philosophy that has murdered millions under cover of equality and fairness, because the individual means nothing. Bill de Blasio, Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, university administrations and faculties, certain Christian clergy and various members of the workers party of Hollywood and late night TV/ sit-coms are just fellow travelers on the path to a system that has failed in every country that got sucked in. There are millions of dead Chinese and starving Venezuelans to prove it.

Alexander Ioannidis Walks away from the Democrats—Congratulations

Here is my #WalkAway moment. The top picture is one of me in April of 2016 phone banking for the Sanders campaign. I was a pro-life socialist because my faith tells me to care for poor people. The way Bernie pitched socialism was appealing. I agreed with him and I fell in love. I thought the left held a moral high ground.

One thing that struck me during that campaign was a comment someone made to me that she would never vote for me in the future unless I respected a woman’s “right” to have an abortion. That comment meant nothing to me at the time, though it should have been a red flag. I was as far to the left as it got and I was taking heat because I disagreed on one issue.

After President Trump won the election, I was hopeful. I was terrified of what Trump would do, but I hoped that his heart would change and he would be compassionate to people whom I thought conservatives wanted to oppress. I told my comrades on the left that I was hoping Trump would be successful, and they would lash out at me and attack my character because I was “helping empower a fascist.”

In 2017, I started my business major and I saw how businesses actually helped poor people by creating jobs for them. It made me think critically and for myself. I then saw a PragerU video in a YouTube ad about how socialism ruined Brazil. To this day, it is the only YouTube ad that I have not skipped. This got me more curious and I started reading more about poverty and socialism. As the year progressed, I began to see just how hateful the left was. They hated me because I did not agree with them 100% of the time. As I began to do more research, I got more and more hate from my former comrades.

Over the last year, I learned that the left just wants people to be dependent so they can stay in power. I learned that the left does not care about minorities, but they want to divide us by race and class to secure our votes. I learned that conservatives see past skin color and only care about upholding liberty and giving everyone an opportunity to live the American Dream. I became disgusted by the hatred the left espoused toward America. I became enamored with America and what a great country it truly was.

By 2018, I had taken the red pill. The best way to help people is to give them liberty and to invest in them rather than to use government handouts to keep them at the bottom. The left is devious, but I have seen the light. I am now a proud supporter of President Trump. I hope and pray for him everyday, especially that he will become a believer if he is not currently one. This millennial loves America and President Trump, and I am now trying to help others on my campus see the light like I did. I hope and pray that America does not get destroyed by socialism like my parent’s homeland of Greece! I am proud to have #WalkedAway

The socialists are lying to you about the "shrinking middle class."

"The American middle class has been doing just fine. In 1967, 33.7 percent of all American households earned between $50,000 and $100,000; by 2014, that number (in constant 2014 dollars) had fallen to 28.5 percent of American households. That means the death of the middle class, right? Wrong. It turns out that everybody just got wealthier. In 1967, the households earning an annual income of $50,000 or less constituted 58.2 percent of all Americans; as of the end of 2014, just 46.8 percent fell into this group. And while only 8.1 percent of American households earned more than $100,000 a year in 1967, today, 24.7 percent do. That’s not a collapsing middle class. That’s a growing upper middle class."
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/middle-class-income-not-stagnating/
Yes, the middle class is moving up, to upper middle class, and socialists hate that and lie to you, like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
And let's not forget how many Americans are now retired--like the Bruces. Socialists want you to forget that figure. "If we compare full-time workers ages 25 to 64 in 1979 with that same subset of workers in 2013, income exceeded inflation and grew 33 percent total."
A lot of these figures are from the Obama era--they even lie to you about that!

NATO costs—for decades Presidents have chided them

I've been browsing what past leaders and presidents have said about NATO costs, and there's virtually no difference from Trump--or rather, the difference is he means it. I'd forgotten that President Clinton was behind the expansion of NATO in the mid 90s and had virtually no plan to pay for it (except we'd continue the lion's share). It's no wonder it's like trying to get a house back from your sister after you've provided it rent free for 50 years. The tenant is insulted and hurt--why now you big meanie? You're picking on me.

Here's Bernie Sanders during the 2016 campaign. "Sanders said, "We spend about 75 percent of the entire cost of the military aspect of NATO. Given the fact that France has a very good health care system and free public education, college education for their people, the U.K. has a good National Health Service and they also provide fairly reasonable higher education, you know what, yeah, I do believe that the countries of Europe should pick up more of the burden for their defense." (Politifact, April 19, 2016)

Politifact is liberal so of course it quibbled. It refigured the math and said it was ONLY 72%. Bernie did say "about," but never mind. The choice was to criticize the Obama administration, or to support the socialist.

So maybe President Obama sounded like Mr. Rogers when he said it, but essentially on April 25, 2016, he said what Trump said sounding like a President of the U.S., and the media did not have a melt down.

“We need to stay nimble, and make sure our forces are interoperable, and invest in new capabilities like cyber defense and missile defense. And that’s why every NATO member should be contributing its full share — 2 percent of GDP — toward our common security, something that doesn’t always happen. And I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defense.” . . . Oh yes, and Obama said he wanted a good relationship with Russia in that same speech.
In fact, the Washington Post claimed candidate Trump was essentially saying what Obama said about NATO. But that was then. . . 2016.