What a stupid fuck-head...

Trump Shames NATO Allies on Defense Spending as Unity Tested (2)

By Jonathan Stearns, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs

U.S. President Donald Trump hectored NATO leaders to pay their “fair share” on defense to help counter the terrorist threat, in a public shaming that risked souring a ceremony intended to mark the alliance’s unity.

Citing this week’s attack in the English city of Manchester, Trump told fellow alliance leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel that NATO should focus its efforts on combating terrorism. Yet of the 28 member nations, 23 “are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defense,” he said.

“That is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States,” Trump said at the event in Brussels on Thursday to mark the opening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s new headquarters. “Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.”

U.S. President Donald Trump hectored NATO leaders to pay their “fair share” on defense to help counter the terrorist threat, in a public shaming that risked souring a ceremony intended to mark the alliance’s unity.

Citing this week’s attack in the English city of Manchester, Trump told fellow alliance leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel that NATO should focus its efforts on combating terrorism. Yet of the 28 member nations, 23 “are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defense,” he said.

“That is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States,” Trump said at the event in Brussels on Thursday to mark the opening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s new headquarters. “Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.”

“We have heard President Trump before being very blunt on the message of fair burden sharing,” Stoltenberg said after the meeting. The U.S. president has been very clear on his commitment to NATO’s collective defense clause, but also “on his expectations,” he said.

His sharp words may have won him few friends among the gathered leaders, who appeared to avoid Trump at the end of the "family photo," the group photograph customary at these global summits. Video circulated online also showed that at one point, Trump used his hand to push aside Montenegro’s prime minster, Dusko Markovic, as leaders milled about during the meeting. Montenegro is formally joining NATO next month.

Merkel, who stood emotionless during the speech, earlier issued her own challenge to the U.S. president, saying that member states including Germany had already pledged to work toward the 2 percent target by 2024 and that outlays on security more generally also count toward the goal. A plan to reaffirm the spending pledge made three years ago “means nothing more or less than that,” she said.

“We’re happy that in the future the sole question will no longer be how much we spend on defense but also what contributions are being made to NATO in terms of capabilities and contributions we’re offering,” Merkel told reporters as she arrived for the meeting. “Germany stands strong in this point and I’ll make that clear.”

Trump also made clear that he’s keeping an eye on NATO’s bottom line, noting as he stood under a grand canopy at the alliance’s new headquarters in Brussels, “I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refused to do that. But it is beautiful.”

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