The Donald Trump – Angela Merkel had its moments.
First we had #NoHandshakeGate, where the press corp kept pushing for a handshake between the two leaders.
Second we had the Trump zinger to Obama, in reference to the wiretap scandal…where the US President, when asked about claims that British intelligence assisted the Obama administration in wiretapping Trump Tower, told German Chancellor Angela Merkel, “at least we have something in common, perhaps.”
Finally we have the NATO spending issue, where a tense Merkel will now be forced to dig into Germany’s piggy bank to up their defence budget to fulfill NATO spending mandates.
…vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017
Trump noted (via Zerhedge)…NATO “has problems.”
“[NATO] is obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Bild quoted Trump as saying about the trans-Atlantic military alliance. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”
While those comments expanded on doubts Trump raised about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during his campaign, he reserved some of his most dismissive remarks for the EU and Merkel, whose open-border refugee policy he called a “catastrophic mistake.”
FACT CHECK: Trump is 100% Correct – Germany has been under-funding its defense budget for years… NATO’s 28-member countries committed in 2014 to spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense within a decade. But only the U.S. and four other members of the post-World War II military coalition are meeting the standard, Pence said.
Despite all the controversy, Trump was happy with the meeting, with the German Chancellor…
Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017
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