What Germany could do to repair trade imbalance with US and increase strength of NATO

NY Times:

Trump Takes Aim at German Trade, but Overlooks Benefits

The president’s campaign against the trade deficit with Germany ignores the 700,000 jobs its carmakers have brought to America and overstates Berlin’s ability to do much about the imbalance.
I am sure Trump is aware of the jobs provided by German companies, and he probably wants more of them because the Germans are still importing more cars into the US.  What Germany should understand is that Trump is not just randomly throwing out insults.

The Chinese and Japanese understand this far better than the Merkel government and both have reached out to accommodate Trump's insistence on creating US jobs in return for more trade.

What German should do is make a bigger investment in US weapons in order to increase its contribution to NATO to the agreed upon level.  That would be a good deal for both countries and increase Germany's ability to resist Russian aggression.

The sooner the media and the Europeans understand that much of what Trump is saying is the opening bid on a potential negotiation the better they will understand what is happening to them.

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