As wrong as U. S. President Donald J. Trump is on many issues, he’s right when it comes to two issues that he highlighted during the July 11–12 NATO Summit in Brussels: Nord Stream 2, the new branch of the existing pipeline, should never be built, and Germany, along with other European nations, is shirking its defense responsibilities.

When it comes to being held “captive” by the Kremlin, Trump is more so than Germany. But it’s heartening to hear Trump speak the truth about how Nord Stream 2 will deepen Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas and how such multibillion-dollar deals should not be taking place given the Kremlin’s threat to international peace. The West, especially European Union leader Germany, should be treating Vladimir Putin as a pariah for a long list of terrorist acts and barbarism, including its wars in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, its attacks on Western democracies and its suppression of human rights at home.

He’s also right to call out the highly corrupt ex-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a contemptible Putin apologist. Schroeder championed the Nord Stream 2 project as chancellor and now works for the Putin project. If and when built, Nord Stream 2 — when combined with Nord Stream 1 — will be able to transport 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine and possibly putting it out of the gas transit business at a cost of $2 billion a year. More seriously, Nord Stream 2 will increase Russia’s power to threaten other nations with its control over their gas.
Trump is, however, wrong to say that Germany is “is totally controlled by Russia because they will be getting from 60 percent to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline.”

Germany imports less than 20 percent of its energy — natural gas — from Russia. The rest of the mix is dominated by oil, coal and renewables. Some 10 percent is from nuclear, but Berlin plans to phase that out. This is where Nord Stream 2 comes in. Trump’s 60–70 percent figure probably refers to the percentage of Germany’s gas imports that come from Russia. The country’s other main foreign source of gas is Norway.

He’s also correct to say that Europe should be doing more to defend itself. If Germany and other Europeans consider Russia to be a threat to world peace and the international order, they should behave that way by boosting defense and reducing trade with Moscow. If not, then Trump is right — Europe shouldn’t put so much of its defense burden on America.

Trump is prone to wildly inaccurate statements, but on these two issues he’s right. He also doesn’t have the attention span or diplomatic skills required to turn his positions into effective policy. Given that he never criticizes Putin, the enemy of the free world, we hope his comments are not merely aimed at needling German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but rather leads to a serious reassessment in Europe of its destructive and dangerous financial ties to Moscow.