Fast Takes: FIFA’s foul red-card reversal, Europe’s internal NATO problem and other commentary

Foreign desk: Europe’s Internal NATO Problem

President Trump’s “hostility” to NATO “boiled over during his war with Iran,” when some alliance members “temporarily denied American forces access to their military bases,” notes The New York Times’ Massimo Calabresi, prompting Trump to ask: “Why should America stay in NATO?” Though NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has tried to remain “optimistic,” he keeps butting against “European shortcomings” that have “bedeviled the alliance,” including “industrial protectionism, nationalist distrust and an instinct to blame America for everything.” Underspending” on defense has “tanked” Europe’s “military readiness.” Even faced with threats of a US “drawdown,” European “leaders still struggle to overcome” local contracting preferences and “centuries of suspicion” of German or French domination. The question now is “whether Europeans can be good allies for themselves.”

America 250: Mamdani’s Beef With the US

Far from being “grateful” or “celebratory” about America’s 250th birthday, Mayor Mamdani, “surrounded by a host of grim, unsmiling immigrants like himself,” gave a July 4 speech to “point out everything wrong with” the country, sighs Batya Ungar-Sargon at her Substack. Mamdani insisted that “America isn’t the greatest, freest nation on earth,” but a place where “children go hungry” and “undocumented neighbors” are disappeared by agents in “unmarked vans.” Mamdani believes immigrants “will determine America’s future, America’s values, America’s nature,” because they have a “special power.” According to him, “the only thing that makes America great, is that it can be fundamentally changed by people like him.” How pathetic: America’s greatness, he believes, lies only in allowing itself to be “perfected” by immigrants.

Sports take: FIFA’s Foul Red-Card Reversal

After President Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the organization partially suspended the red card for the US men’s soccer team striker Folarin Balogun, observes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. To Trump fans, that shows the president’s “power,” while critics say it proves Trump “believes in breaking the rules.” Yet, notes ESPN’s Andy Davies, the call was “based on slow-motion and still replays” of Balogun stepping on Tarik Muharemović’s ankle, “which is not aligned with VAR protocols” in this case. Hmm, wonders Geraghty: “Do the folks upset about Balogun’s reinstatement realize they’re arguing that an exceptionally bad call by the ref must be kept in place, to protect the so-called integrity of the game?

Midterms beat: Court Followed 1st Amendment

“Can you believe it? The MAGA Supreme Court just rigged the November midterm election,” The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finlay snarks sarcastcally. “After a 6-3 majority struck down federal limits on the amount of money that party committees can spend in coordination with candidates,” the media decided the court had handed the GOP a win — but they “spilled little ink on the majority’s legal analysis” of spending limits that violate the First Amendment.” “If money could buy elections,” Tom Steyer would be governor of California. In fact, “what has turbocharged political spending is the massive expansion of government,” so that “businesses donate to curry favor with the overlords who can make or break them.” The left “lambastes corporate spending, but their socialist agenda will encourage more of it.”

Gotham watch: Don’t Buy Zo’s Socialist ‘Magic’

Mayor Mamdani “boasted” that New York City’s “$125.8 billion budget proves socialists ‘understand economics,’ ” but in reality, the budget shows “fiscal gimmickry” and “a huge bailout from Albany,” warn the Washington Examiner editors. Mamdani said his “capitalist” predecessor Eric Adams “left the city with a $12 billion budget deficit,” which Mamdani fixed via “socialist magic” — like raising “taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.” True, he did raise taxes, but not nearly enough to hit his promised haul of “$500 million a year.” And even if that number were accurate, it couldn’t “close a $12 billion budget” hole by itself. So he used the same “budgeting tricks” and “gimmicks” he bashed. And the projected “gap next year is even higher, at $8.8 billion.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board