The plain simple truth whether it was the Soviet Union or Putin's Russia, Europe has relied on the US to carry the burden of their defense.  Merkel even had the audacity to say the US had to spend more on defense than Europe because the US has the Pacific allies to support that Europe doesn't.  Nice that Merkel has her own alternative facts.  i.e. there is no Eurasia land mass in her world.  Every US President in the last 50 years has understood the US spends far more to protect the world's democracies but Trump is the first to call out the other countries.   Maybe because the US government has $20 trillion in debt and Illinois is on the verge of bankruptcy or at best a junk bond rating.  I just wish he had a different style.