A Tale of Two Visits

United States President Donald Trump detonated a rhetorical bomb in Europe this week during his visit to nato headquarters in Brussels for meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. The morning he arrived, he got off to a combative start. He laid into Germany at a breakfast meeting with European Union officials. He strongly condemned Germany for doing billions’ worth of business deals with Russia, while relying on America to defend it from Russia. The below video shows him laying in to Germany for not spending enough on its military.

A couple of takeaways from this. Trump is pushing Germany to rearm. I completely sympathize with his statements about America getting ripped off—it is. But he is pushing Germany to remilitarize in a serious way—a world-changing way. If Germany were to spend 2 percent on its military, it would outspend Russia. Combining that spending with the rest of the EU—with France, Spain, Italy, etc—you’re talking about making Europe a serious military force.

In fact, Mr. Trump went beyond calling for Germany to spend 2 percent of its economy on defense. He wants Germany to spend 4 percent of its economy on defense. That would come to well over $150 billion. If it does that, it would spend more on defense than every other nation except the U.S. and China. If all of Europe spent this much on defense, it would be a new superpower.

Of course, we’ve been forecasting the rise of this superpower for years. The Bible prophesies of another resurrection of a major world power in Europe. You can read more about these prophecies in our free booklet He Was Right. It reviews how Herbert W. Armstrong forecast this European power decades ago. He even forecast events such as Eastern Europe breaking away from the iron curtain and joining Europe.

So Mr. Trump is encouraging Europe to remilitarize. His presidency is also exposing a divide that has developed between Europe and the U.S. These two are no longer the close allies they once appeared to be. And someone else wants to move in on Germany.

China Courts Germany

There was another visit to Europe this week, much less hyped than Mr. Trump’s. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on July 9. Business leaders signed $23.5 billion in deals. What I think is really significant is that later that same day, China announced that it would free Liu Xia, a controversial political prisoner. Liu is the widow of one of China’s most famous dissident writers and human rights activists, Liu Xiaobo. China says the release had nothing to do with Germany, but no one really believes that. Just this May, Ms. Merkel asked China to release Liu.

For years, Germany has been badgering China about human rights and political prisoners with very little results. Only now does China do something. Why? China is facing a trade war with the U.S. This move shows, I think, that it is getting a bit desperate. Facing a trade war with America, China really wants to be in Germany’s good books.

This leads to a prophecy we’ve talked about often. Isaiah 23 discusses a “mart of nations” that both Europe and China play a prominent role in. It’s a trading, economic relationship. We see it building right now, with these countries drawing closer. You can read more about that in our April 2017 article “Trade Wars Have Begun.”

That’s the big overview from Germany this week: a split from the U.S.; Germany being pushed to remilitarize; a budding relationship between Germany and China.