President Elect Donald Trump is causing heartburn, even among his supporters, with recent remarks about the European Union, NATO, and universal health care. He expounded on the first two subjects in an interview with the German newspaper Bild. The Washington Post reported on Trump’s musing on the latter subject.
Trump told Bild that he expects more countries to break away from the European Union after Brexit. He is undoubtedly correct in that assessment. Europeans are chaffing under an unwieldy bureaucracy in Brussels and are irate at the sudden influx of unassimilated Muslim refugees.
As a result, a wave of nationalism is sweeping Europe that promises to sweep a number of governments away.
Trump also suggested that NATO is “obsolete,” something that his top foreign policy and national security advisors like James Mattis, the president elect’s nominee for secretary of defense, disagree with. Currently, NATO is dealing with a resurgent Russia, with American troops deploying to Poland to defend against Putin’s imperial ambitions.
The Washington Post reported that Trump is going to roll out his proposal to replace Obamacare, now being repealed by Congress. He offered few details, but promised that it would be “universal health care” but would not be single payer. The promise has experts in health care policy raising eyebrows.
No health care system in the world, not even the vaunted government run systems in countries such as Canada and the UK, covers everybody for everything. Such systems feature rationing and even death panels. Not enough money exists to accomplish that feat. Many Trump observers are wondering if this is another case of having to take the president-elect seriously but not literally.
One complaint that even Trump supporters have expounded on is the tendency of the president-elect to speak when perhaps he should remain silent. His Twitter account is a constant source of news as Trump tweets piffy remarks that have caused outrage and consternation. The president-elect would counter that his method of communication has worked for him so far. In that assessment, he is indisputably correct. The question is, will he go too far some day?
