LONDON — President Trump threatened to use trade as a weapon against NATO allies who fail to pay their share of defense costs, as world leaders gathered in London to mark the alliance’s 70th anniversary.
Trump has frequently accused members of leaving the United States to shoulder the burden of defense costs. He takes credit for cajoling more members to meet their commitment of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.
“NATO is becoming different than it was, bigger than it was, much stronger than it was because people are now fulfilling their commitments. There are some counties that aren’t fulfilling their commitment, and those countries are going to be dealt with,” Trump said.
“Maybe I’ll deal with them from trade standpoint, maybe I’ll deal with them in a different way. I’ll work something out.”
Nine of the alliance’s 29 members now meet the target. All are committed to meeting it by 2024.
Speaking alongside President Emmanuel Macron of France, Trump said NATO defense spending by Europe and Canada had increased $131 billion since he took office.
“That’s a tremendous amount of money, but it’s not enough. They also raised and have commitments for $400 billion, so NATO, which was really heading in the wrong direction three years ago … to a point where I don’t think they could have gone on much longer, now it’s actually very strong and getting stronger,” he said.
Earlier in the day, he criticized Macron for saying NATO was “brain dead,” comments sparked by the Turkish incursion into Syria.
Several allies believe Trump himself tacitly green-lighted the operation by withdrawing American troops from the Syrian border without consulting them.
Sitting next to Macron, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone as the two leaders agreed that NATO needed to change its direction to cope with a changing world.
“I think the president and I think feel that we need more flexibility, and I think we agree on that, so we can use it for other things,” Trump said.
An alliance built to deal with the Soviet Union, and now focused on Russia, Trump added, needed to be better able to tackle terrorist groups or the threat from China’s growing power.
