The Germany Drawdown is Weakening Our Own Hand
Plus: What You Missed This Week From The Bulwark
Happy Saturday! Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a Bulwark+ member: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
Withdrawing Troops from Germany Is an Own Goal
PRESIDENT TRUMP, ONCE AGAIN PIQUED at an ally, has ordered 5,000 American troops withdrawn from Germany. Defense Department officials were not shy about linking the move to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s criticism of what passes for American strategy for ending the war with Iran.
Further drawdowns from Germany and elsewhere in Europe may be coming. Angered at recent criticism by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the most MAGA-adjacent European national leaders, and chagrinned by Madrid’s decision not to engage in the war about which NATO was never consulted, Trump also has threatened to close U.S. bases in Italy and Spain. Someone needs to advise President Trump that our forces stationed on allied soil are in fact critical U.S. military enablers, not trading cards or transactional toys, with host nations to be rewarded for good behavior or threatened with base closure as punishment. In medical parlance, such moves would be best described as “self-harm”; in the geo-political world, they would be characterized as “diplomatic malpractice.”
COME JOIN US IN CALIFORNIA!
May 21: Bulwark Live in Los Angeles at the The Novo featuring Tim, Sarah, and Sam
May 20: Bulwark Live in San Diego at the Balboa Theatre featuring Tim, Sarah, and Sam
Trump Called It ‘White Genocide.’ Now the White People Are Flocking Home.
SINCE HIS FIRST TERM, DONALD TRUMP has insisted that the South African government is committing “genocide” against white South Africans, targeting them with violence and forcibly taking their land. Most infamously, Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office last year with a misleading video purporting to show mass burials of white famers. He has also made white South Africans the centerpiece of the U.S. “refugee” program.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Saturday! It was a big night for playoff Overtime last night, with my Cleveland Cavaliers falling to the Toronto Raptors and the Montreal Canadiens to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Both series go to game 7. Congrats to the Buffalo Sabres for advancing past the Bruins. With my Blues not making the playoffs, I’m rooting for this gritty team. Go Sabres!
Tim Miller joins Linda Chavez on her podcast Older and Wiser at the Renew Democracy Initiative to talk about Hasan Piker.
David Baer will join Bill Kristol on The Bulwark on Sunday at 10 a.m. Eastern to discuss the lessons of Hungary (and his piece).
Reader Comment of the week from Wolfpack Dem:
It’s horseshoe theory. Populism ALWAYS ends up bending in an authoritarian direction, which is why I am skeptical of it from the right and the left (though I believe “controlled/in check” left populism can certainly be channeled in a positive direction).
Institutions matter, and we shouldn’t want to blow them up. REFORM them? Certainly. But those who want them blown up turn out to be self-loving charlatans 9 times out of 10.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
Putin doesn't even have to do anything. DonOld Dick's brain is squirming like a toad.
He understands nothing. He knows nothing.
Jim Swift standing up for democracy, thanks