President Trump said Thursday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization contains “a dictator or two,” and that those U.S. allies were first in line to boost military spending.
Trump did not identify which of the 28 U.S.-allied nations in NATO are led by dictators, but said he found them most receptive to his recent demand for a defense spending boost.
“These are kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers — and a dictator or two, they were the ones that actually were able to pay the easiest,” Trump said during a speech in Granite City, Ill.
Trump was defending his demand ahead of a NATO summit this month that member states boost military spending to reach a previously agreed upon 2 percent of national GDP.
“So I did a good job for you with NATO, but they don’t talk about that,” he said. “There were stories written about my attitude with NATO, and they didn’t say that hundreds of billions of dollars more have been agreed to be paid. And that was the whole purpose because our country was being taken advantage of. We were paying anywhere from 70 to 90 percent the cost of 29 total countries in NATO. Not anymore.”
“At the end of that meeting, they agreed that they would pay up hundreds of billions of dollars more money will be spent on NATO and we’re not going up,” he said. “The head of NATO, the secretary general Stoltenberg, he said they’re now paying their bills and they’re proud to do it. The press said I treated them badly. I treated them with disrespect.”
Although Trump did not identify which national leaders he considered dictators, he gave the speech shortly after blasting NATO member Turkey’s detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson on espionage charges.
Some U.S. officials see Brunson’s case as a ploy to force the U.S. to expel Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup against him.
“The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!”
