alliance by sowing doubt and discord among america's closest supporters. neither is fully true. president obama routinely asked for increased defense spending from nato's allies. trump's loud charge that germany has become too dependent on russian natural gas does have considerable merit. the germans signed up for an energy relationship with russia that is strategically dangerous. it's not so much that by importing large amounts of natural gas from russia, berlin can be blackmailed. the russians are equally dependent on german cash. but the new pipelines being built could allow russia to threaten eastern european countries by withholding energy supplies and jacking up prices. and moscow has used and abused this energy card in the past. but again, trump's complaint was often voiced by the obama administration. and in neither of these cases is there any indication that donald trump's crude and aggressive