Trump slams NATO allies
President attacks Germany as ‘captive to Russia’ in lecture as summit gets started
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 compared with 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 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.
Although 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 — also to 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 had 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 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.
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.
French President Emmanuel Macron, asked by a reporter after his short meeting with Trump if he agreed that Germany is captive to Russia, said he did not.