Former President Donald Trump has made news by criticizing NATO members for not paying their NATO dues. Newsweek reported Trump’s latest remarks to an anonymous leader of a presumably NATO country this way: The Republican presidential nominee frontrunner said the anonymous leader had asked whether the U.S. would protect the NATO nation‚ if Russia attacked. “I said‚ ‘You didn’t pay‚ you’re delinquent?’” Trump told the crowd on Saturday. “In fact‚ I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.” For speaking the obvious if blunt truth that NATO members should pay their NATO bills‚ all manner of foreign policy elites have dumped on Trump. But wait. Let’s recall a little NATO history. In fact‚ Trump’s views on NATO not paying its bills exactly echo the views of‚ yes‚ in fact‚ no less than President Dwight D. Eisenhower. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: BREAKING: Biden Pal Bobulinski New Testimony to House Committees NATO was founded in 1949 as a collective security system‚ with then-Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed as the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR)‚ making him‚ in effect‚ NATO’s first leader. Eisenhower served until the British Lord Ismay was appointed NATO’s first secretary general in April of 1952. And‚ of course‚ Ike himself was elected U.S. president in November of 1952. With Trump’s critics freaking out over his criticism of NATO‚ it is worth remembering that Trump is not the first president to do so. He is following in Eisenhower’s footsteps. No less than Gen. and later U.S. President Eisenhower was not shy about criticizing the alliance for not paying its bills. Indeed‚ as president‚ Eisenhower would express his dissatisfaction to his secretary of defense‚ one Charles Wilson‚ becoming very unhappy when word of his NATO criticisms became public. In the second of his two seriously detailed Eisenhower biographies‚ Eisenhower: The President‚ historian Stephen Ambrose writes this of Eisenhower’s views on NATO (with bold print for emphasis supplied): The level of post-Korea defense spending continued to be a problem. In October‚ to Eisenhower’s great irritation‚ Wilson leaked to the press the Administration’s plans to sharply reduce personnel. The Europeans‚ fearing reduction in American combat strength in NATO‚ immediately protested to [Gen. Alfred] Gruenther [who had risen to the position of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe]‚ who passed along their alarm to Eisenhower. In response Eisenhower began by complaining about Wilson‚ saying that “some people have more trouble in controlling their tongues than they do their wives.” But he also told Gruenther to remind his European friends that the stationing of American troops in Europe was always intended to be on a “temporary or emergency” basis. When Eisenhower was SACEUR he had frequently expressed the hope that American boys could go home in three or four years. Now he reminded Gruenther that the United States could neither build nor afford to maintain “a sort of Roman Wall to protect the world.” He also worried about the troops themselves; how long‚ he wondered‚ before European gratitude for their presence would turn to hostility toward foreign troops on their soil. When Gruenther passed along some more European criticism‚ Eisenhower began to lose his temper. “I get weary of the European habit of taking our money‚” the President wrote‚ “resenting any slight hint as to what they should do‚ and then assuming‚ in addition‚ full right to criticize us as bitterly as they may desire. In fact‚ it sometimes appears that their indulgence in this kind of criticism varies in direct ratio to the amount of help we give them.” In fact‚ the whole thing made him mad as hell‚ and “makes me wonder whether the Europeans are as grown up and mature as they try to make it appear.” Ambrose also writes: The Europeans‚ meanwhile‚ were telling [Eisenhower Secretary of State John Foster] Dulles — and Eisenhower’s special representative to NATO‚ William Draper — that they could not afford to spend any more on defense…. Thus early patterns were established. Eisenhower was determined to force the Europeans to spend more on defense‚ and to achieve political and military unity. Bottom line? Clearly former President Trump’s critics of his views on NATO paying its share of the bills are utterly unaware that Trump is‚ in fact‚ following exactly the thinking of NATO founding Gen. and later U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. That would be the same Eisenhower rated today as a great president. With reason. The post Trump: The New Eisenhower on NATO appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.