Trump and Merkel clash at fraught NATO summit

[Revmitchell]

Brussels (AFP) - US President Donald Trump traded barbs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a tense NATO summit Wednesday after he accused Berlin of being "captive" to Russia and demanded it immediately step up defence spending.

The two-day meet in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for defending the continent.

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, shot back that she knew what it meant to be under Kremlin domination and Germany had the right to make its own policy choices.

European alliance members were braced for criticism from Trump on defence spending, but his blistering attack on Germany at a breakfast meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg took the summit by surprise.

"Germany is a captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia," Trump said, taking particular aim at the proposed Nord Stream II gas pipeline, which he has previously criticised.

"Everybody's talking about it all over the world, they're saying we're paying you billions of dollars to protect you but you're paying billions of dollars to Russia."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-slams-captive-germany-nato-summit-081237901.html

 

[Revmitchell]

This is exactly why Trump got elected and why he will be re-elected. Instead of running America down he is sticking up for it. Good job Mr. President it has been a long time coming.

 

[church mouse guy]

Merkel is another one like May. Trump should tell her to pay up or we will put 100% tarrif on German cars coming into the USA.

 

[Yeshua1]

Merkel is another one like May. Trump should tell her to pay up or we will put 100% tarrif on German cars coming into the USA.

Nato was just so used to how President Obama addressed them, as asking them "How can we spend more to help you all out?"

 

[David Kent]

Brussels (AFP) - US President Donald Trump traded barbs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a tense NATO summit Wednesday after he accused Berlin of being "captive" to Russia and demanded it immediately step up defence spending.

The two-day meet in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for defending the continent.

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, shot back that she knew what it meant to be under Kremlin domination and Germany had the right to make its own policy choices.

European alliance members were braced for criticism from Trump on defence spending, but his blistering attack on Germany at a breakfast meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg took the summit by surprise.

"Germany is a captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia," Trump said, taking particular aim at the proposed Nord Stream II gas pipeline, which he has previously criticised.

"Everybody's talking about it all over the world, they're saying we're paying you billions of dollars to protect you but you're paying billions of dollars to Russia."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-slams-captive-germany-nato-summit-081237901.html

Germany has to get its energy from somewhere.

 

[Yeshua1]

Germany has to get its energy from somewhere.

Is Russia the only place to get it from though?

 

[David Kent]

Is Russia the only place to get it from though?

I don't know, I suppose they could get it from Iran.

 

[Revmitchell]

Germany has to get its energy from somewhere.

when you have educated yourself on this issue come back and we'll talk.

 

[David Kent]

when you have educated yourself on this issue come back and we'll talk.

Oh so you are educated? I never noticed.

 

[Revmitchell]

Oh so you are educated? I never noticed.

Seriously? Is that all you got?

 

[carpro]

This is exactly why Trump got elected and why he will be re-elected. Instead of running America down he is sticking up for it. Good job Mr. President it has been a long time coming.

He is unafraid to tell it like it is. I'm liking this guy as president more all the time.

 

[Eliyahu]

Angela Muhammad has already alienated Germanistan from USA by so many policies and bringing over 1 million Muslims. She made the whole Europe be called Eurabia.
I am afraid NATO will eventually be collapsed.
However, Trump shouldn't be accountable for that because the whole Europe had already swerved from the right path before Trump's presidency. The problem is that Putin and Russia are very happy with this situation, which is really sad.
Germany should fire Angela by another election ASAP.

Eliyahu

 

[Eliyahu]

2% of GDP for Defense is not too high to implement, I think.

South Korea makes GDP of ca. 1.5 Trillion Dollars, then their budget is about 420 Billion Dollars,
Among this amount the defense budget is 41 Billion Dollars, which means 2.7 % of GDP.
Therefore it was not too much demand when Trump asked EU to spend 2% of their GDP for their defense.

Eliyahu