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Washington business owners fear socialist ‘millionaires tax’ is driving businesses out — and they’re next

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SEATTLE—Business owners in Washington state are worried that the recently passed “millionaires tax” will drive economic activity out—and even target them next. 

“There’s a lot of fear and trepidation with what’s going on in our government when it comes to taxes,” Matt Humphrey, a Seattle barber who has locations in the Ballard and Roosevelt areas, told Fox News Digital. 

“This new millionaire’s tax is definitely going to impact us,” Humphrey said. “We’re afraid… they treat us a bit like an ATM when it comes to paying out taxes as a small business.” 

Steve Gordon, principal of Gordon Truck Centers, a truck dealer in Pacific, Washington, said he is concerned that the millionaires tax will eventually make its way to those who are not in the millionaire income bracket. 

“The income tax is the latest kind of battle that’s happened here recently,” Gordon said. “But while they frame it as it’s just a tax on millionaires, I mean that’s stacked on a whole bunch of other taxes and there’s nothing to keep it from expanding to regular citizens. And I think a lot of regular folks realize that what might be just for millionaires today supposedly will be coming for them later as they broaden that tax base.” 

MAMDANI’S ESTATE TAX PLAN COULD DRIVE WEALTH OUT OF STATE, CRITICS WARN

Washington state Democrats last month passed the “millionaires tax,” which Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed March 30. It’s the state’s first-ever income tax, celebrated by progressives and socialists and opposed by conservatives; the Wall Street Journal editorial board called it a “con” after its passage that will “inevitably capture the middle class.”

The new tax will impose a 9.9% income tax on households earning more than $1 million each year. T tax applies to any money earned after the first $1 million of someone’s annual income. It will take effect on Jan. 1, 2028, with the first payments due in April 2029, KOMO News reported

“Adoption of the historic Millionaires’ Tax makes our tax system more fair, and means free meals for K-12 students, the largest tax break in state history for small businesses, eliminating the sales tax for baby diapers, and sending a check to nearly 500,000 working families to make life more affordable,” Ferguson said at the time.

His office touted that the new tax “sends significant revenue back to Washington families and small business owners.”

But not everyone is thrilled.

“They’re all concerned. Everybody’s concerned,” radio host Ari Hoffman told Fox News Digital.

“And it doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, because as I mentioned before with regards to Amazon, if you’re a barber and you were reliant on the Amazonians as your customers, now you don’t have them anymore. You don’t have a barbershop anymore. There were a lot of places that opened up in South Lake Union where Amazon was specifically for Amazon, and they had to close shortly thereafter.”

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570 KVI reported Wednesday that Socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is suggesting she might be pursuing additional taxes on the wealthy and big business. 

“Speaking at a community forum Friday night, Wilson said her administration is exploring new ‘progressive revenue options’ to help close a projected $140 million city budget gap in 2027,” the outlet reported, quoting Wilson who said, “My team is very hard at work looking for progressive revenue options, taxing the rich, taxing big business in a way that we think will be politically viable and practical.” 

The city of Seattle, according to the Tax Foundation, has the highest combined state and local sales tax rate, sitting at 10.35%. 

The organization points out that Seattle surpassed the city of Tacoma, Washington, which had a 10.3 percent tax rate, when King County, where Seattle is located, adopted a 0.1% additional sales tax to generate additional revenue for nonprofits providing cultural programming.

“I pay two different B&O taxes, a state B&O tax, a city B&O, I pay sales tax,” Humphrey told Fox News Digital.

VICTORIOUS VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS MORPH FROM PRETEND MODERATES INTO LIBERAL EXTREMISTS OVERNIGHT

“They want to tax me on all my equipment that I use here annually, that I’ve already paid sales tax on,” he said. “They come up with the highest minimum wage in the state, if not in the country, that I’m aware of. So the cost of labor, the other thing is our relationship with labor. They put us in a very vulnerable position when it comes to actually being an employer. It doesn’t favor the employer.”

Washington State’s Business & Occupation (B&O) tax is the Evergreen State’s primary business tax. It is unusual because it is charged on gross receipts, or total revenue, rather than profit, meaning that businesses must pay the tax even if they lose money.

Several Washington cities have a higher minimum wage than Seattle’s $21.30 per hour, including Tukwila at $21.65 for large employers and Renton at $21.57.

“Amazon used to be bustling,” Hoffman told Fox News Digital. “It was like when I would go down there, I felt like it was in Manhattan. I couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere. And now, no problem, I can park wherever I want. It’s really sad.”

FROM ‘JUMP ON A BUS’ TO TAX CRACKDOWNS: BLUE STATES CHASE WEALTHY RESIDENTS FLEEING TO RED HAVENS

On Feb. 24, Amazon told GeekWire that it would not renew its lease at 1915 Terry Ave in the Denny Triangle area of downtown Seattle, which had occupied the space for 12 years. 

GeekWire reported that the company is growing its presence outside downtown Seattle in Bellevue, located in King County, Washington, across Lake Washington from Seattle. 

It has opened new office buildings and plans to have 25,000 employees as part of its regional headquarters.

“I mean, I look at my own community,” Hoffman said. “When you had a lot of people who lived here specifically for the tech world, and in 2020 they were told they could work remotely, a lot of them went elsewhere and were still collecting a Seattle salary and then found jobs in those other places. They never came back. The jobs aren’t going to come back magically. These taxes, these policies are scaring people off and a lot of people are leaving.”

Starbucks is another company appearing to lessen its Seattle presence, confirming in March that it will be closing five additional stores in the city. That follows several closures in 2025, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill. 

Additionally, in a March post on LinkedIn, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that he and his wife moved to Florida for their “retirement phase,” leaving Washington state after almost half a century.

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY, BLUE STATE AMERICA IS HEADING FOR FINANCIAL DISASTER

While Schultz did not mention the millionaires tax, some, like Gordon, speculate his departure could have been due to it. 

“It was pretty ironic that Howard Schultz, who definitely has been a person of the Left nationally with his political profile, announced the day that they approved that income tax in our legislature, he made the announcement that he was leaving for tax-free Miami, Florida,” Gordon said. 

“So I don’t think that was a coincidence,” he went on. “And for people that have watched Jeff Bezos leave and other prominent members of the Seattle business community, you start to see a trend there that’s unavoidable that the leaders of the businesses are leaving and the businesses themselves are relocating. Starbucks headquarters, for instance, has just opened up a new second headquarters in Tennessee and the speculation is they’re eventually going to move all of their employees out of their Seattle headquarters to Tennessee.”

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But State Rep. Shaun Scott of Seattle, a member of the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America since 2017, told Fox News Digital that he doesn’t want to engage in hypotheticals about the future of the millionaires tax trickling down to the less wealthy.

“Well, it’s very difficult to legislate with hypotheticals and to legislate thinking about what may happen 10, 15, 20 years down the line in a legislative body that I may not even actually be a part of,” Scott said. 

“I believe that it is our role as state lawmakers to legislate according to the issues that are impacting us while anticipating ones that might come down the line,” he added. 

Scott continued, “And the fact of the matter is that right now in Washington state we have galling wealth inequality. And underfunded public institutions. And the way that that is reconciled is through basic arithmetic. People who have more could afford to be paying more into the system. And when that happens, I think that Washington will be an even more competitive place to live, work, and do business than it is at present.”

CORPORATE AMERICA IS ON THE MOVE, AND THESE RED STATES ARE CASHING IN

Scott said he believes “taxing the rich” is popular among both Republicans and Democrats. 

“Well, taxing the rich and the idea of taxing wealth in order to fund services that we all use, make no mistake about it, this is about as popular a policy position in Washington state as any other,” Scott said.  

“As a matter of fact, it is, I would venture to say, the most popular position that somebody could take,” Scott added. “In the November 2024 election cycle here in Washington state, approaching two-thirds of Washington state voters statewide cast their ballots in favor of a capital gains tax upholding our capital gains tax, which funds early learning K-12 schools and child care in our state. So when you talk about taxing the rich in our state, that is something that is staunchly supported in very red conservative legislative districts as well as very progressive blue legislative districts like my own.”

Vijay Boyapati, a former software engineer for Google, moved to Seattle in 2006 from California to escape high taxes there.

He told Fox News Digital that he sees taxes consistently rising in the state without “results.”

“Taxes have gone up constantly over the last decade. They’ve almost doubled from about ten years ago, but educational results are much worse, so the money isn’t producing the results that they say it will produce,” Boyapati said.

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“So the question really needs to be, why are we not getting better results? he asked. “I think we need to look at why our school systems are failing, why 8th graders, for instance, have like a 70% rate of illiteracy and really poor scores on math, those are really important things to look at and throwing more money at it hasn’t solved the problem, so I think we need to kind of address the problem first before throwing more at it.”  

A June report from the Washington State Standard found that, “More than two-thirds of the state’s 4th graders failed to meet reading standards, and 70% of 8th graders weren’t proficient in math last year.” 

Boyapati also said friends of his are leaving the state because of the tax climate.

“I have friends who’ve left to Texas, friends who left to Miami, friends who’ve left to Wyoming,” he said. “And it’s all for the same reason. It’s because Washington really went very far left in the last four years, and the policy changes have been really dramatic and that caused a lot of my friends to leave, unfortunately.” 

Humphrey, the Ballard barber, said that he would warn others about something similar happening in their state. 

“What I would say to the rest of the country is don’t let this happen to you,” Humphrey said.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS SEEK DOZENS OF NEW TAX HIKES, INCLUDING ON DOG WALKING AND DRY CLEANING

“Don’t become so compassionate around these issues that sound good and don’t not do your homework,” Humphrey added. “Please look. Look closely at the taxing of small businesses. You can’t, you know, what we’re doing here in the state – going against the Constitution for an income tax is a terrible decision, and it’s going to snowball right towards us, right? I’m next. I’m the next in line. I don’t make a million dollars a year for sure, but I’m in line for them to come after for a state income tax. And I guarantee you, I can’t afford that.” 

In a statement to Fox News Digital about its Seattle presence, Starbucks said, “We regularly review how our coffeehouses serve their neighborhoods and if they are meeting customers where they are. Sometimes that means investing in updates or trying new formats.” 

The company added, “Other times, it means making the difficult decision to close a location that no longer fits how people in that community live, work, or gather. These choices are never easy — especially here at home — but they’re an important part of focusing on what we do best and delivering on our Back to Starbucks strategy.” 

An Amazon spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that, “Amazon employees will be moving out of 1915 Terry Avenue at the end of May when our lease expires and relocating to other Puget Sound headquarter offices.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to former Starbucks CEO Schultz, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and Gov. Bob Ferguson for comment. 

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Artemis II crew closes in on Earth as mission ends with Pacific splashdown and more top headlines

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1. Artemis II crew closes in on Earth as mission ends with Pacific splashdown

2. Hormuz choke point persists as Iran halts oil traffic despite Trump ceasefire

3. Husband of missing American woman falls overboard while being transported into custody

PARTY CRASHER — SCOTUS blocks Ohio candidate after alleged plan to ‘trick’ GOP voters. Continue reading …

‘IMPOSSIBLE’ — Sailors who knew missing woman’s husband break silence on dinghy conditions. Continue reading …

‘SENSELESS’ — Sheriff says suspect ‘got what he deserved’ after armored vehicle ran over gunman. Continue reading …

BREWING REBELLION — California coffee chain pulls Pride flags, says ‘allyship runs deeper than walls’. Continue reading …

MAN VS MACHINE — Philadelphians already attacking Uber Eats delivery robots one month after launch. Continue reading …

BIPARTISAN PUSH — MTG, Nancy Mace, Thomas Massie react to Melania Trump’s Epstein denial speech. Continue reading …

GOLDEN STATE GAFFE — Resurfaced remarks show Newsom’s wife equating convicted killers with bad luck. Continue reading …

BENCH BRAWL — Judge rebuked twice by Supreme Court deals another blow to Trump immigration agenda. Continue reading …

FUTILE FURY — Senate Dem says Trump ‘unfit’ to serve, pushes removal with impeachment, 25th amendment. Continue reading …

Click here for more cartoons…
 

FADING INSTITUTIONS — Ben Sasse says Senate ‘filled with blowhards,’ says politics barely matters. Continue reading …

NO BOYS ALLOWED — California college to exclude men from areas in order to ensure women are comfortable. Continue reading …

CAMPUS CALLOUSNESS — Georgetown professor dismisses concerns when confronted about grooming gangs. Continue reading …

DEFIANT DISTRICT — ‘Rule of law’ education officials buck California mandate designed to block ICE. Continue reading …

HOWARD KURTZ — Why Melania Trump is denying alleged smears related to Jeffrey Epstein–and wants victims to testify. Continue reading … 

MATT VAN EPPS — Our fallen heroes’ families deserve more than outdated survivor benefits. Continue reading …

TOO HOT TO HANDLE — Bissell steamers recalled following dozens of burn injuries. Continue reading …

PRODUCE POWER — Simple superfood pairing already in your kitchen could offer boost for heart health. Continue reading …

DIGITAL’S NEWS QUIZ — What did Gov Spanberger try to dodge? Hasan Piker lashed out at which TV host? Take the quiz here …

MONEY HIKES — Property tax burden on Americans climbs as home values dip, new data shows. Continue reading …

UNBEARABLE LOSS — First daughter Ivanka Trump gets emotional while discussing the loss of her mother. See video …

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN — The American media is carrying water for Iran. See video …

SEN. TED CRUZ — Trump’s threat remains very operative. See video …

Tune in for a breakdown of the high-stakes science behind safely returning astronauts from deep space. Check it out …

What’s it looking like in your neighborhood? Continue reading…

 

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Al Sharpton says America’s 250th anniversary is not a ‘celebration’ for Black people, calls it ‘crazy’

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MS NOW host Reverend Al Sharpton said the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary is not a “celebration” for Black people and that it’s “crazy” to expect them to celebrate it.

“They’re going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country July 4th, but that’s not our celebration,” Sharpton said at the National Action Network’s 35th Anniversary National Convention on Wednesday.

He continued, “We were slaves then, and they celebrate signing the Declaration of Independence 1776. We were not even emancipated until 1863. So I don’t know what everybody getting ready for a celebration [for]. You know that it seems crazy for me to have on the birthday hat at your birthday party. That ain’t my party.”

WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: IT WILL BE ‘HARDER’ TO CELEBRATE AMERICA’S 250TH BIRTHDAY

Sharpton suggested that he should hold a separate rally in Philadelphia and expressed concern that young citizens were not aware of Black people’s “background” thanks to President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., attempting to remove woke aspects in education.

“When White kids hear us talking about reparations or affirmative action, they think it’s an attack because they don’t know what their granddaddy did to us,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton has been a critic of removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from businesses and schools, threatening boycotts against businesses that pulled back DEI initiatives since Trump’s second term began.

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He also accused DeSantis of trying to “erase Black history” after his administration demanded revisions to an AP African American studies course in 2023.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who spoke with Sharpton earlier in the convention, also emphasized the importance of remembering the nation’s history with slavery, advocating for the formation of a “Department of Reconciliation” to address it.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

“We need a Secretary of Reconciliation just as we have a Secretary of Education, a Secretary of Labor. We need a Secretary of Reconciliation who would report directly to a president, not this president, directly to a president. And the job would be to reconcile our differences,” Green said.

He added, “And that reconciliation, for me, I say this with no shame, no embarrassment. I am unapologetically Black, and I say this: that would include reparations. Reparations for the 240 years of free labor that people still benefit today from and that we were locked out of opportunities along the way while they were benefiting.”

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AMB GORDON SONDLAND: NATO blinked on Iran, and Trump has every right to be furious

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Imagine, for a moment, the alternative. In the hours immediately following a successful decapitation strike, instead of criticism and handwringing, the European Union and NATO leadership step forward in lockstep with Washington and Jerusalem and say: We stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States and Israel; Iran will never possess a nuclear weapon; and the removal of this leadership has made the world safer.

Think about how Tehran would have processed that—not as a tactical setback, but as strategic isolation. Think about how Beijing and Moscow would have read it: a West that is unified, decisive, and willing to act in concert. That kind of clarity doesn’t just end a news cycle—it reshapes behavior.

Instead, what we saw was hesitation. Even NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged, in effect, that some allies were slower to respond than the moment demanded. That matters. Because in moments like this, speed and unity are not cosmetic—they’re strategic.

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I’ve spent enough time inside the system—both in business and as U.S. ambassador to the European Union—to recognize when frustration is tactical and when it’s structural. Donald Trump’s irritation with NATO falls squarely into the latter category. It’s not a passing complaint. It’s a fundamental disagreement about what the alliance is supposed to do—and whether it still has the will to do it.

NATO proudly defines itself as a defensive organization. Fine. But let’s be clear about what “defense” actually means in 2026. It does not mean waiting politely until the next missile hits or the next proxy attack kills Americans or Israelis. Defense, in the real world, includes deterrence, disruption and, when necessary, decisive action against actors who have spent decades making their intentions clear.

Iran has been running that playbook for 47 years: dead American soldiers, attacks on shipping, and a relentless campaign against Israel, one of the West’s most important allies. This isn’t theoretical. It’s not episodic. It’s sustained hostility.

So when the United States moves to degrade that threat, even in a limited and targeted way, the expectation from Washington—particularly from Trump—isn’t that NATO jumps into the fight. It’s far simpler than that. Let us use bases. Give us airspace. Provide political cover. Stand with us publicly.

MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP LEADS THE WEST TO A BIG WIN AGAINST IRAN

And yet, time and again, the response from parts of Europe is hesitation, legal hand-wringing and carefully calibrated distance.

That’s what’s driving Trump’s frustration.

Let’s address the issue of advance notice, because it’s become a talking point. Critics argue that not fully briefing allies ahead of sensitive operations is disrespectful or destabilizing. That’s a Washington talking point that doesn’t survive contact with reality.

In an alliance this large, with this many domestic constituencies and internal divisions, leaks are not hypothetical—they’re a certainty. Anti-war factions, staff-level dissent, political maneuvering—it all creates risk. And when you’re talking about high-value targets or leadership decapitation, surprise isn’t a luxury. It’s the mission.

TRUMP IS RIGHT ABOUT NATO’S WEAKNESS — THE REAL QUESTION IS HOW DOES AMERICA FIX IT

The psychological impact of those operations matters as much as the physical outcome. You want the adversary disoriented, off-balance and unsure of what comes next. That only works if you preserve operational integrity. So no—this isn’t about sidelining allies. It’s about making sure the mission succeeds.

And let’s not pretend NATO is operating in a vacuum. Allied governments know when tensions are escalating. They see force posture changes. They understand, at a strategic level, what’s coming. The idea that they’re blindsided is more political theater than operational truth.

What happens after is what really matters—and that’s where the alliance keeps falling short.

Instead of a unified response—something as simple and powerful as “when and where do you need us?”—we get fragmentation. Statements about escalation. Concerns about legality. Efforts to create daylight between Washington and European capitals.

From a geopolitical standpoint, that’s a mistake.

GEN KELLOGG SAYS NATO ALLIES ARE ‘COWARDS,’ CALLS FOR NEW DEFENSE ALLIANCE

Adversaries like Iran are not just watching what the United States does. They’re watching how aligned the West is when it does so. A united front—even if only the United States and Israel are conducting strikes—has enormous psychological impact. It signals that the alliance is cohesive, that political backing is firm and that there’s no easy way to divide and exploit.

When that unity cracks, even rhetorically, it invites testing. It tells Tehran there’s room to maneuver, to push incrementally, to escalate in ways that stay below the threshold of a unified response. Over time, that raises the cost of deterrence and increases the risk of a much larger conflict down the road.

Trump understands this instinctively. He’s not looking for consensus for its own sake. He’s looking for leverage.

NATO CHIEF SAYS WORLD IS ‘ABSOLUTELY’ SAFER UNDER TRUMP

And leverage, particularly with regimes like Iran, doesn’t come from endless negotiation. It comes from pressure—economic, military, psychological. Negotiations become productive when the other side believes the alternative is worse. Until then, they’re just buying time.

That’s not a theoretical critique. It’s an observed pattern.

European leaders often take a different view, rooted in decades of prioritizing diplomacy and avoiding escalation. I understand that instinct. But there’s a difference between diplomacy backed by strength and diplomacy that substitutes for it.

STEVE FORBES: IRAN’S NUCLEAR INSANITY LEAVES AMERICA AND ALLIES NO ROOM TO BLINK

If the latter becomes the default, you don’t get stability. You get erosion.

And eventually, you get adversaries who believe they can act with relative impunity—until the only options left are far more extreme.

This is where burden-sharing comes back into focus. The United States still carries a disproportionate share of NATO’s financial and military load. That’s not controversial—it’s arithmetic. Even NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has acknowledged that Europe has been slow to step up on defense spending and responsiveness.

TRUMP SAYS HE’S CONSIDERING PULLING US OUT OF NATO OVER IRAN WAR STANCE

So when Washington asks for access, cooperation or even just unambiguous political support, it’s not an unreasonable request. It’s the basic expectation of an alliance where one member is doing the heavy lifting.

What Trump is effectively saying is this: if we’re underwriting the system, the system needs to work when it matters.

Now, to be fair, European governments are not operating in a vacuum. Domestic politics matter. Public opinion matters. There is deep skepticism about military engagement, particularly in the Middle East. Leaders have to navigate that reality.

TRUMP RATES MACRON ‘AN 8’ AS FRANCE AND US SPLIT OVER MIDDLE EAST STRATEGY

But leadership is not about mirroring public hesitation. It’s about shaping public understanding—especially when the stakes are rising.

There are moments when you have to bring your population along, not hide behind it. Moments when the right answer is not to deflect, but to lead.

This is one of those moments.

TRUMP, RUBIO FACE NATO CHIEF AS US MOVES TO ‘REEXAMINE’ ALLIANCE AFTER IRAN CLASH

Because the alternative is a slow erosion of deterrence. A pattern where the United States acts, Europe distances itself and adversaries adapt. That’s not a stable equilibrium—it’s a glide path to a larger crisis.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: if that crisis comes after years of incremental escalation, the options available at that point will be far worse than the ones being debated today.

That’s the strategic risk embedded in Europe’s current posture.

DAVID MARCUS: IN TRUMP’S DEPARTMENT OF WAR, IT’S SOLDIERS — NOT EXPERTS — CALLING THE SHOTS

Trump’s approach—pressure first, negotiation second—isn’t universally popular. But it’s grounded in a clear understanding of how regimes like Iran operate. They don’t respond to goodwill gestures. They respond to credible threats.

Or, to put it more bluntly: negotiations tend to work when the other side feels like it is on the ground, bleeding, with a gun to its national forehead.

That’s not elegant language. But it reflects a real-world dynamic.

ECONOMIST EDITOR SAYS EUROPEAN LEADERS NOW FEAR A TRUE NATO ‘DIVORCE’ AFTER TRUMP PULLOUT THREAT

So the question for NATO isn’t whether it agrees with every American decision or every presidential instinct. That’s not how alliances work. The question is whether it’s prepared to act like a strategic partner when it counts.

Because in the end, alliances are judged by behavior, not by communiqués.

Right now, there’s a gap between what NATO says it is and how parts of it are behaving under pressure. Trump is calling that out—forcefully, sometimes inelegantly, but not inaccurately.

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Closing that gap doesn’t require Europe to become something it’s not. It requires clarity, consistency and a willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder—even if the operational burden falls primarily on the United States.

Sometimes leadership means explaining to your public why action is necessary.

Sometimes it means acting first and bringing them along after.

And sometimes, it simply means answering the call with the words that, right now, we’re not hearing nearly enough:

“When and where do you need us?”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM GORDON SONDLAND

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