27 May, 2017
Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, said in a statement that Trump "should not be lecturing our closest and most steadfast allies".
Trump said that 23 of 28 member nations do not pay what they should for their defense and pointed out that the USA has spent more than all other member nations combined over the last eight years.
Mr Trump's rebuke of mainly European allies for not spending the recommended 2 per cent of GDP on defense came during a ceremony marking the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the USA, when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation invoked for the first and only time its mutual-defense clause. I refused to do that. But it is lovely.
CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, Germany (through interpreter): Our alliance is united in the awareness of the importance of cooperation to insist on freedom.
Instead, he returned to a grievance about Europe's drop in defense spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to NATO's founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all.
The camera focuses on the group walking slowly as Trump appears to suddenly shove Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro aside to get ahead, and then comes to a complete stop while standing tall and fixing his jacket. The speech baffled America's European allies, and potentially pleased Russia's militarily-adventurous President Vladimir Putin. Tusk, who previously has expressed concern about the new USA administration, said he and Trump agreed on counterterrorism, but did not see eye to eye on a number of other issues, including climate change, trade and Russian Federation.
After the meeting, it was clear that differences remained. Tusk also called for "Western values" to be promoted, challenging former tycoon Trump's world view that self-interested deals best settle global problems. The president lunched with French President Emmanuel Macron, where the two leaders shook hands in a tense, white-knuckled embrace.
Leaders will urge the president to stick with the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
President Trump stirred controversy in Brussels when he was caught shoving another politician out of his way.
Trump first cast doubt on the provision during his presidential campaign, shocking members of the alliance when he suggested the USA might only defend members of the alliance who "fulfill their obligations to us".
But, you know, they will clearly be very disappointed by the criticism today.
U.S. President Donald Trump has rebuked his fellow alliance leaders for not being "fair" to the U.S. taxpayers.
So they don't like where the comments were made.
Cajoled on issues like climate change and NATO's defense pact, he's responded by scolding some of the United States' most loyal allies for not paying their fair share. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that "of course" the United States supports Article 5, though Trump still wants other nations to meet their obligation to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
Analyst Thomas Wright of the Washington-based Brookings Institution said Trump's failure to publicly declare this was "shocking and damaging". They are the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
"See the millions of cars they are selling in the US".
The mutual defense pact forged by the US with its allies in Europe after World War II has, unfortunately, become a hollow alliance in recent years, with America shouldering most of the financial and military burdens.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, any sense of what the Trump administration, the Trump delegation thinks about all this?
In heated remarks, Erdogan on the eve of the meeting said it was up to Brussels to decide if it wanted Turkey as a member of the bloc. Sean Spicer spoke with reporters after. If the president doesn't pout does he still earn, like, a half-star on the behavior chart?
"There are too many leaks", he said.
If NATO is to continue, it must have a mission, and Trump just gave it one.
So, he has pushed back on all that.
