At a conference I attended recently in DC, I had the chance to show a lot of my colleagues around the downtown monuments. For them, many from other countries, seeing the Lincoln, the Washington, the Capitol, was once in a lifetime – for me, it was Tuesday. 

At one point, a German in the group – fatigue in his voice – asked me, “Tell me… How can Americans keep voting for Trump?” The term Trump was shorthand for Americans’ embracing nationalism and rejecting globalism, which seems oh-so backwards to our European cousins. I think he expected me to dance around his condescending question; instead I responded, “How can Americans not vote for Trump?”  

Globalism, I explained, is a luxury that the rest of the world enjoys at the expense of the American taxpayer. The international “free” trade – thanks to our Navy – is very expensive indeed (almost $380 billion for 2027). Americans pay for 31 percent of the United Nations’ budget. Virtually all of our NATO allies have historically refused to pay their share – Germany is bad, but Luxembourg is the worst offender even though the microstate is the richest nation on Earth. 

And these are just the official ways that American generosity subsidizes the modern global order.........

© Townhall