Trump claims he subdued NATO allies with his ‘go it alone’ ultimatum

Asked about pressures on countries with weaker finances, he said, “We have many wealthy countries with us today but we have some that aren’t so wealthy and they did ask me if they could buy the military equipment, and could I help them out, and we will help them out a little bit”, he told a news conference.

Earlier Thursday, Trump called out USA allies on Twitter, saying, “Presidents have been trying unsuccessfully for years to get Germany and other rich NATO Nations to pay more toward their protection from Russian Federation”.

Regarding the “delinquency” of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies, USA president was insisting on military spending of at least 2 percent of gross domestic product, which is, however, not a current requirement of the membership.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. “in actual numbers”, is spending 4.2 per cent of its GDP on defence.

“I believe only one thing: the communique we have approved, the strategy we defend and the seriousness we have, because it is the security of our people we are talking about”, he added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s remarks showed the USA was eyeing to scuttle Russia’s gas supplies to Europe to push its own energy sector, the report said.

“We are increasing our defence budget”.

“(The) 2 per cent (figure) was a range, a goal, now it’s a commitment, it was like this amorphous number out there and now it’s a real commitment”, he said.

He’s questioning the value of a military alliance that has defined decades of American foreign policy, torching an ally and proposing a massive increase in European defense spending.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who like the summit host, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, was singled out in the room by Trump for spending less that 1 percent of GDP on defence, said Madrid would also meet the target by 2024.

Trump tweeted on Thursday morning before the second day of talks. The United States looks forward to finalizing a great bilateral trade agreement with the United Kingdom.

During Trump’s meeting with Putin, McCain said, the president “must reverse his disturbing tendency to show America’s adversaries the deference & esteem that should be reserved for our allies”.

First on Trump’s agenda was a breakfast with the NATO Secretary General and before the food even came out, Trump was ranting about how the US funds the protection of all the other NATO countries. (Poland came in just shy with 1.99 percent.) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that he expects eight nations to hit the target in 2018.

Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive of Russian Federation because it is getting so much of its energy from Russian Federation, he said.

“He’s been very nice to me the times I’ve met him”. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me.