Trump Admonishes NATO Member Countries in Speech (Video)
The president spoke at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels on Thursday morning, scolding member countries for "not paying what they should be paying."President Trump admonished fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries during a speech at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday morning. Watch his full speech in the video above.
Trump began the speech by addressing British Prime Minister Theresa May and the recent terrorist attack in Manchester. “All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing and removing these killers and extremists,” he said. “And yes, losers. They are losers,” he added, referencing the now-viral comments he made in the initial aftermath of the Manchester attack.
The main thrust of his speech, however, discussed how “the NATO of the future must focus on terrorism and immigration.” Trump went on to explain that, in order to address these security concerns, NATO member countries needed to “meet their financial obligations.”
“NATO members must finally contribute their fair share,” Trump told the uneasy crowd. “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying–and what they are supposed to be paying–for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years.”
CNN notes that, “under the NATO treaty, members of the alliance must commit 2% of their GDP to defense spending, a benchmark that only five of the alliance’s 28 members currently meet.” Trump, however, told NATO leaders that 2 percent “is the bare minimum for confronting today’s very real and very vicious threats.”
His remarks come several days after the release of his 2018 budget, which boosts military spending while cutting other programs in an attempt to eliminate the federal deficit.
The speech did nothing to help leaders’ anxieties over America’s participation in NATO. “[Trump] omitted any clear statement of support for Article 5, the NATO mutual-defense pledge — something other leaders had been hoping to hear,” NPR reports. “The Associated Press described Thursday’s speech as an ‘unprecedented one-two punch’ that ‘further rattled’ an already anxious Europe. And at home, one Democratic leader called the remarks ‘condescending’ and an ’embarrassment.’ “
The uncomfortable speech comes hours after an earlier awkward interaction with fellow NATO leaders. Video of the president appearing to shove aside Dusko Markovic, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, during a photo-op quickly went viral:
Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? pic.twitter.com/bL1r2auELd
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 25, 2017
“Trump truly taking ‘America First’ to heart — willing to literally push aside world leaders to stand in front,” California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted in response.
The NATO summit is Trump’s second-to-last stop in his first international trip as president. He is scheduled to travel to Italy for the G7 summit on May 26 and 27.
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