President Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end free foreign aid, and while Democrats, lawyers, and judges are pushing back on his agenda, Trump says the rebalancing of the global order on both trade and defensive weapons is necessary.
"The United States of America has been ripped off on trade (and military!), by friend and foe, alike, for decades," Trump wrote in a Monday morning Truth Social post. "It has come at a cost of trillions of dollars, and it is just not sustainable any longer – and never was!"
The "long free ride" has come to a long overdue end, according to Trump.
"Countries should sit back and say, 'Thank you for the many year's long free ride, but we know you now have to do what's right for America,'" his post concluded. "We should respond by saying, 'Thank you for understanding the situation we are in. Greatly appreciated!'"
Trump's post comes as he is expected to announce a defensive arms deal with Ukraine that would supply it with Patriot missile systems and other defensive weapons amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's unrelenting war in Ukraine.
Trump had attempted diplomacy with Putin – even once warning Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he does not "hold the cards" and should try to talk peace with his longtime aggressor – but Trump's frustration over Putin sticking a finger in his face has come to a head.
"We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people: He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington on Sunday night.
"But there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it.
"We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that, and that's the way we want it."
He plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine and other issues this week.
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.