Trump takes different tack with NATO

BRUSSELS — During his 28 hours at the NATO summit, President Donald Trump disparaged longtime allies, cast doubt on his commitment to the organization and sent the 29-member pact into frenzied emergency session.

Then, at the end, he declared the alliance a “fine-tuned machine” that had acceded to his demands to speed up increases in military spending.

Trump said member nations had agreed to boost their defense budgets significantly and reaffirmed that the U.S. remains faithful to the accord.

“The United States’ commitment to NATO remains very strong,” Trump told reporters at a surprise news conference following an emergency session of NATO members held to address his threats.

Neither Trump nor NATO offered specifics on what Trump said he had achieved. French President Emmanuel Macron quickly disputed Trump’s claim that NATO allies had agreed to boost defense spending beyond their existing goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2024.

“There is a communique that was published yesterday; it’s very detailed,” Macron said. “It confirms the goal of 2 percent by 2024. That’s all.”

Trump elaborated on his thoughts about NATO at the news conference.

“Yesterday I let them know that I was extremely unhappy with what was happening,” he said. “They have substantially upped their commitment and now we’re very happy and have a very, very powerful, very, very strong NATO.”

But several leaders said the gathering produced no new spending commitments. Instead, they said, members reaffirmed the need to stay on track with military-budget increases that have already been underway.

“I made clear that we know that we have to do more and that we have been doing so for quite a while,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.