Trump slams allies at NATO summit
President attacks Germany as ‘captive to Russia’ in lecture
BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump upended the show of unity at NATO’s annual summit Wednesday as many allies had feared, claiming that Germany “is totally controlled by” and “captive to Russia” and inflating his demands that they spend more on defense to an unrealistic level.
The president’s comments in Brussels, especially his unexpected attack on Germany, Europe’s leading power, undercut the alliance’s ultimate declaration of shared values and a joint defense against Russian aggression.
His attack on Germany as beholden to Russia, because of a pipeline project, was in keeping with Trump’s practice of accusing others of behavior he has been accused of. It comes after he irked allies last month by suggesting that Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven alliance of industrialized nations.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki, a get-together that, given his frequent warm words for the autocrat, has U.S. allies apprehensive.
Trump’s posture toward close allies has been increasingly confrontational this year, especially in comparison to his more conciliatory approach to adversaries, including Russia and North Korea. Even as he flew to Brussels, Trump continued his attacks on NATO allies for not spending more on defense, and after hours of meetings Wednesday he reiterated his disdain in a tweet that began, “What good is NATO … ?”
As his latest remarks filtered back to the United States, some Republican congressional leaders criticized the president for his slams against Germany and other allies, though others defended him.
Among Democrats, former Secretary of State John Kerry called Trump’s statements “disgraceful, destructive,” and the party’s congressional leaders — Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi — in a joint statement said the president’s comments were an “embarrassment” and “another profoundly disturbing signal that the President is more loyal to President Putin than to our NATO allies.”
In closed-door summit meetings, Trump increased his previous demands for NATO allies’ defense spending, saying each of the President Donald Trump seemed to go it alone in his criticism of Germany at the NATO summit Wednesday in Brussels. 29 member nations should budget an amount equal to 4 percent of their economies as measured by their gross domestic product — up from 2 percent.
While NATO in 2014 set the goal that each nation reach the 2 percent level by 2024, Trump told allies to do so immediately. Doubling that, which allies reject, would require the U.S. — now at 3.5 percent of GDP — to also increase its military spending.
NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg, who emphasized the steady increases in member nations’ military spending in recent years, later told reporters that the alliance would focus on meeting its current goal.
White House aides privately acknowledged that Trump’s posture was intended to create leverage on trade and security issues.
Though Trump had been expected to shake things up in Brussels, especially after he’d broken with allies last month at the G-7 summit in Canada, his performance still was something of a shock — and one that drew widespread criticism.
Nicholas Burns, who was the U.S. ambassador to NATOon Sept. 11, 2001, after which the alliance voted to come to the aid of the United States, said, “Our big strategic advantage over Russia is we have these big alliance systems and they don’t. That’s a very big part of America’s influence in the world and the president doesn’t see that, because he’s so narrowly focused on trade disputes.”
“He’s making a major mistake if he keeps this up,” Burns added.
Critics say that while Trump has grounds to complain, as past presidents have, that NATO allies are taking advantage of the United States, he fails to recognize the alliance’s value to the country.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a public retort upon arriving at the summit. The chancellor, who grew up during the Cold War in the former East Germany, under the Soviet Union’s control, said she didn’t need to be lectured about dealing with authoritarian regimes.
“I have experienced myself how a part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union,” she said. “I am very happy that today we are united in freedom, the Federal Republic of Germany. Because of that we can say that we can make our independent policies and make independent decisions.”
When the two leaders met privately later, they spoke about the pipeline as well as other issues, Trump said. But in their brief remarks to reporters, he only flattered Merkel about Germany’s economic gains.
French President Emmanuel Macron, asked by a reporter following his short meeting with Trump if he agreed that Germany is captive to Russia, said he did not, as Trump sat alongside him.
As is often the case with Trump, his criticism of the pipeline project contains a measure of truth within his distortions and misrepresentations.
Germany isn’t “captive” because the pipeline isn’t finished, though U.S. and Eastern European countries have long worried that Germany could become more dependent on it over time. Russia in the past has manipulated gas supplies to threaten Ukraine.
Ukrainians, Poles and other Eastern Europeans worry that Western Europe could become less willing to protect them if Russia has a bigger role as an energy supplier.