President Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets Tuesday morning, once again taking aim at the “Fake News” media for its coverage of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki, Poland.
“We share (Trump’s) view that we want to see allies all stepping up to meet the commitment they gave at the summit in Wales in 2014 to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense and 20 percent of that on equipment.”
But first he boasted about his work with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization the week before, citing increased payments being made to the organization by member countries now and into the future — thanks to him. Trump said other NATO nations have already upped spending by $33 billion, and committed to hundreds of billions more.
I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me. NATO was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia). The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
In 2014, the 29 member nations agreed to up defense spending to at least 2 percent of each country’s GDP. The U.S. chipped in 3.5 percent on NATO defense last year while only six other countries paid the agreed upon 2 percent: the U.K., Greece, Estonia, Romania and Poland.
Trump left Brussels, dropping a soft ultimatum of sorts: Pay more for defense spending, or the U.S. might just leave the organization altogether.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who has sometimes had a frosty relationship with Trump, defended his position that other nations need to start paying their fair shares.
“We share his view that we want to see allies all stepping up to meet the commitment they gave at the summit in Wales in 2014 to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense and 20 percent of that on equipment,” she said to the Members of Parliament on Monday. “It’s something we meet and a limited number of other members of NATO meet, including the United States of America. (Trump’s) making this point about burden-sharing has made a difference.
“Just in the last year we’ve seen an extra $41 billion added to defense budgets across the NATO allies and there was a real sense at this summit, following the discussion that he initiated, that we would see people not just stepping up in terms of going to meet their 2 percent, but seeing that there was an increased urgency in doing this.”
Shortly after his first tweet, Trump blasted the media for its overwhelmingly negative coverage of his summit with Putin on Monday, deeming it an even greater success than his meeting with NATO.
While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
The president then went on to thank Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, for his support of the summit closing with a final praise of the booming U.S. economy.
The economy of the United States is stronger than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018