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By Max Frost
One of Trumpโs favorite stories โย he repeats it constantly in press conferences and at campaign events โ plays out like this:
The NATO leaders are sitting around a table and Trump says to them they have to pay more for defense. As Trump has told it,โโEverybodyโs gonna pay.โ They said, โWell, if we donโt pay, are you still going to protect us?โ I said, โAbsolutely not.โโ
He ends the story, โYou never saw more money pour in!โโ
Heโs repeated that story every year since 2017. Heโs doing it again now, having reiterated in recent weeks that the US would not defend NATO members who didnโt spend enough.
The question of whether NATO members spend enough has a surprising degree of agreement: When Trump said NATO wasnโt paying its fair share, even CNNโs fact-checker wrote, โWe canโt verify whether the United States is getting โripped off,โ but itโs clear that most NATO member countries are not spending what the allianceโs official guidelines require. Trumpโs statement is true.โ
When Trump first entered politics, only three NATO countries โ including the US โย hit the 2% of GDP minimum defense spend. Today, 23 of 31 do, but politicians across Europe and the US still say thatโs not enough. Trump wants the countries to spend 5% of GDP on defense.ย
European governments spend far more than Americaโs โ just not on defense. So what do they spend their money on instead? And what will it take for them to hit Trumpโs new 5% target?
Thatโs the subject of todayโs deep-dive.ย

In 2012, German Leader Angela Merkel noticed a tension at the heart of Europe: Despite having just 7% of the worldโs population and 25% of its economy, it accounted for up to 50% of its welfare spending.ย
To protect that way of life, Merkel said, โAll of us have to stop spending more than we earn.โ
In total, the US federal government spends around 20% of GDP. The average EU government spends that amount on social protection โย jobless benefits, paid family leave, etc. โย alone.ย
This leads to tangible differences in how Europeans and Americans live.
Take retirement and pensions:
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Editorโs Note
Thanks for reading! Weโd love to hear from you, especially our readers in Europe. Can European countries ratchet up defense spending without dealing a blow to the welfare system? What are your priorities for your countryโs national budget? Let us know by replying to this email.
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A lot of emails to yesterdayโs story on the blood plasma business in the US. We loved reading your replies โ weโre sharing a handful below.
Elizabeth wrote:
Your story caught my eye as I was introduced to plasma selling a few years ago.ย Itโs a very well known source of income for teachers.ย Iโm not talking rural/low income areas, rather very middle class, successful school districts where teachers are still so underpaid after doing all the extras like coaching and Drivers-Ed, with two parents teaching, who still need to supplement their income to get ahead.ย I was shocked to learn they both donate regularly as a way to pay for their vacations and for supplies the schools do not provide.ย ย
Jerry wrote:
Wow! This story hit home with me. Iโm a regular blood and/or plasma donor in Virginia and all I ever got was a free T-shirt. I donate at the American Red Cross Blood Donation Center and was under the impression all of my plasma was used locally for patients in need. What Iโd like to know now is the economics of this business. Does the Red Cross sell my plasma to a hospital? Is the patient's insurance or Medicare/Medicaid billed for something I donated freely? Does the American Red Cross sell any overseas? If this is a $20B industry, who is profiting?
Please do a Part Two to this story!
And Luke wrote:
I did this throughout college, in a similarly depressed area - Toledo. I mostly blew the cash on beer and thankfully wasn't in as desperate of a position as many of the people there. I think its an easy way to make a few bucks, lay down and listen to a podcast/watch netflix & get paid, but it definitley feels a little dystopian. It'd be cool if the gov't could make these foreign companies pay a little more for the literal blood of the American people.ย ย
Thatโs all, see you back here tomorrow.
โMax and Max