NPR.
This is The Indicator from Planet Money.
I'm Adrienne Ma.
And I'm Waylon Wong.
The Pentagon's decision to pull some American troops out of Germany represents a fresh chill
in the relationship between the U.S.
And its European allies in NATO.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is one of the pillars of the post-World War II global order.
And historian Heather Cox Richardson says it has yielded huge benefits for the U.S.
And the rest of the world.
This is a defensive alliance that has this extraordinary payoff.
Look even at hand now at how much the United States of America is spending in Iran alone.
That's a billion dollars a day.
So if you think about this not as a tit for tat and you think of it more as a concept of how the world should operate,
NATO is really cheap.
President Trump, however, does talk about NATO like it's a tit for tat.
He was once quoted as saying at a campaign rally, if they're not going to pay, we're not going to protect.
And that makes NATO sound more like a protection racket than a strategic alliance.
So is that what NATO is?
Today on the show, we examine Trump's view of NATO,