Trump, Macron clash on sidelines of NATO
President claims credit for alliance’s transformation
LONDON — Thumping his chest on the world stage as he faces an impeachment inquiry at home, President Donald Trump claimed credit Tuesday for transforming NATO as the military alliance marks its 70th anniversary. But he also clashed with America’s NATO allies, especially French President Emmanuel Macron, about military spending and the alliance’s very mission.
Trump began the first of two days at the NATO conference by publicly rebuking Macron, once arguably his closest European ally, for recently saying the post-World War II alliance was experiencing “brain death” as a result of diminished U.S. leadership under Trump.
“I think that’s insulting to a lot of different forces,” Trump said. “It’s very disrespectful.”
But the president himself has questioned whether the alliance has become “obsolete,” and he accused NATO members anew of shirking national commitments on military spending.
Hours later, Macron and Trump sat side by side for a media session, and Macron said he stood by his comments about the health of the NATO alliance. He also expressed his frustration that Trump withdrew hundreds of American troops from Syria in October
Trump bantered with reporters for more than two hours Tuesday, sitting casually in a salon of Winfield House, the manicured estate of the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he also met with fellow NATO leaders.
He slammed the ongoing Democratic-led impeachment inquiry back in the United States as a “hoax” and professed to be unconcerned about declines in the stock market spurred by his remark that a trade deal with China might not materialize until after the 2020 election.
Trump later called on Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and attended a NATO welcome reception at Buckingham Palace, before proceeding to an event at the prime minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Stt. Trump punctuated the day of diplomacy with a fundraiser for his reelection effort that his campaign said brought in $3 million.
The gathering of NATO leaders follows Trump’s frequent criticism of alliance members as falling well short in doing their financial part through the first three years of his presidency.
After a NATO summit last year, he called for members devote at least 4% of gross domestic product to military spending and took aim at German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he accused of paying Russia “billions of dollars for gas and energy” while failing to meet her nation’s commitment to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense.
But at this NATO meeting, Trump — who heads toward an election year looking to showcase foreign policy wins — is offering a more optimistic outlook for the alliance’s future. To that end, he suggested he deserved much of the credit for progress.
“I don’t think frankly before us that NATO was changing at all, and NATOis really changing right now,” Trump said as he sat down for a one-on-one talk with NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg.
White House officials say that before Trump took office just four NATO members had reached the 2% bench mark set in 2014. Now there are nine, Eighteen of the 29 are projected to meet it by 2024.
Stoltenberg said that Trump does deserve credit for nudging members.
“The reality is that, not least because it has been so clearly conveyed from President Trump that we need fair burden sharing, allies are stepping Stoltenberg said.
In his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump gently ribbed the premier — whose country is spending about 1.3% of GDP on defense — as “slightly delinquent.”
“Some are major delinquent,” Trump said. He added that he’s looking at the possibility of imposing unspecified trade penalties against NATO allies that perpetually fall below bench marks.
“Some are way below 1 percent and that’s unacceptable, and then if some
up,” thing happens we’re supposed to protect them, and it’s not really fair, and it never has been fair,” he said.
Trump’s talks with Macron were tense at times.
Before meeting with him on the sidelines of the summit, Trump laced into the French president for what he called “very, very nasty” comments in The Economist about NATO’s health with Trump leading its most important member.
Macron didn’t back down when they appeared later in the day, and he renewed his own criticism of Trump for withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria.