At a rally in South Carolina Donald Trump stated that he told a NATO leader that if the country was “delinquent” in it’s payment to NATO and if Russia attacked that “I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they wanted.” Even after four years as president, Trump doesn’t understand that NATO members don’t pay dues like at Mar-a-Lago, but commit to a percentage of their GDP to their own defense. NATO members pledge to come to the defense of one another if a fellow member is attacked. If the U.S. fails to honor our promise made by treaty, it will call into question our promise to back the dollar with the “full faith and credit” of the United States?
What happens to the strength of the dollar and the credit worthiness of the nation? If the U.S. is less credit worthy, then interest on the national debt goes up and more of every tax dollar will go to debt and less to building durable things like roads, bridges, airports, national defense, etc. On a more granular level, if U.S. borrowing costs go up, so do borrowing costs for businesses large and small. Housing costs more, the building trades slow down, car loans, student loans, credit card costs all go up. Trump’s words embolden our enemies to question U.S. resolve as a nation and threaten financial stability at home and around the world.
Eric Weiner
Concord