politics
Trump Tells NATO Chief He Wants Loyalty Over Spending Ahead of Turkey Summit
President Trump told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte he wants loyalty from allies rather than additional defense spending. The exchange came during a White House meeting last month ahead of this week’s summit in Turkey.
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The comment came after Rutte presented charts showing $1.2 trillion in defense spending by European allies and Canada since 2017, along with data on U.S. jobs created and a $300 billion backlog in European orders for U.S. military equipment. Trump said he was still disappointed that some allies had not joined the Iran war he launched alongside Israel without consulting them.
Trump has long criticized NATO members for spending too little on defense. Allies agreed last year to match U.S. spending levels as a share of gross domestic product. Rutte has spent much of his nearly two-year tenure trying to keep the United States committed to the alliance.
Trump suggested he might have skipped the upcoming summit if it were not being hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Pentagon announced last month it would scale back the number of troops, warships, aircraft, and drones it would provide if an ally came under attack. Trump has sent conflicting messages about whether U.S. troop numbers in Europe would be lowered or increased.
A study released Thursday found Russia has been probing Europe’s defenses with drone flights near military bases across multiple countries.
The last NATO summit took place in The Hague.
” This year’s meeting will be hosted by Erdogan, whose close ties to Trump may keep the American president at the table. Rutte’s predecessor Jens Stoltenberg wrote in his memoir about chairing a 2018 summit that Trump nearly upended.
