Trump makes new spending demands at NATO summit
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 the alliance’s members spend more on defense to an unrealistic level.
The president’s comments in Brussels, especially his harsh and unexpected attack on Germany, Europe’s leading power, overshadowed the alliance’s ostensible business and undercut its ultimate summit declaration of NATO allies’ commitment to 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 7 industrialized democracies.
Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, a get-together that has U.S. allies apprehensive, given his frequent warm words for the autocrat.
The president’s posture toward close allies has been increasingly and remarkably 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, even 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 F. Kerry called Trump’s statements “disgraceful, destructive,” and the party’s congressional leaders — Sen. Charles E. 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 significantly increased his previous demands for NATO allies’ defense spending, saying each of the 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 that the U.S. — now at 3.5 percent of GDP — increase its military spending as well.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who throughout the day emphasized the steady increases in member nations’ military spending in recent years, giving Trump some credit, later told reporters that the alliance would focus on meeting its current goal.
Stoltenberg has strived to maintain good relations with Trump, but his calm demeanor at a news conference at day’s end could not dispel the palpable tension caused by an American president who gives short shrift to longtime alliances. White House aides privately acknowledged that Trump’s posture reflected his transactional approach and was intended to create leverage on trade issues, as well as security.
Though Trump had been expected to shake things up in Brussels, especially after he had broken with allies last month at the G-7 summit in Canada, his performance still was something of a shock that drew widespread criticism.
Nicholas Burns, who was the U.S. ambassador to NATO on 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. “It’s taking on the vestiges of a vendetta. When you go out at the start of the summit and set a tone that looks so anti-German and looks like it’s aimed at weakening (Chancellor Angela) Merkel, it looks malicious.”
Following the meetings at the sprawling, glass-enclosed NATO campus on the outskirts of Belgium’s capital, Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, took to Twitter for damage control.
NATO, he tweeted, “is the most successful alliance in history. All #NATO allies have committed to extending this success through increased defense spending, deterrence and defense, and fighting terrorism. Weakness provokes; strength and cohesion protects. This remains our bedrock belief.”
Adding to the unease is anticipation of Trump’s upcoming meeting with Putin. Amid speculation that Trump would acquiesce in Russia’s 2014 an- nexation of Crimea, Stoltenberg dodged a reporter’s question about whether the president had given any assurances that he would stand by NATO’s position that the action was illegal.
Critics and even some supporters 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.
“‘America First’ has been his mantra. What Trump doesn’t understand is the United States cannot defend itself without its assets and bases on foreign soil,” said Frank Rose, a former Defense Department and State Department official in Republican and Democratic administrations.
“That radar in Denmark is not there to defend the Danes. It is defending us,” Rose continued.
At a breakfast with Stoltenberg before the summit, Trump redirected a question about his looming meeting with Putin by suggesting that a natural gas pipeline project has made Germany subservient to Russia. He apparently was referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would dramatically increase the amount of gas Russia is able to export directly to Germany.
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” Trump said. “You tell me if that’s appropriate, because I think it’s not.”