President Trump on Thursday dropped his threat to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and said he was “very happy” with NATO’s recommitment to ensuring members spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense spending.
“I let them know, yesterday I let them know that I was extremely unhappy with what was happening and they have substantially upped their commitment,” Trump said Thursday. “Now we’re very happy and we’ll have a very strong, very powerful NATO.”
Trump had talked loosely about leaving the historic alliance, but on Thursday in Belgium after his NATO meetings were wrapped up, Trump said the recommitment to spending made that option “unnecessary.”
“I think I probably can but that’s unnecessary, and the people have stepped up today like they’ve never stepped up before,” he said when asked about the possibility of the U.S. leaving.
NATO members on Wednesday agreed to a communique that said members have “started to increase the amount they spend on defense,” and said about two-thirds of the members have a goal of spending 2 percent by 2024.
French President Emmanuel Macron downplayed Trump’s turnaround by saying the NATO communique simply “confirms the goal of 2 percent by 2024.”
But Trump declared he was satisfied with the 2 percent target for now, and incidated he would soon push for a 4 percent goal.
“What they’re doing is spending at a much faster clip,” he said. “They’re going up to the 2 percent level.”
“After we’re at 2 percent, we’ll start talking about going higher,” he added.
“I said ultimately, we should be in years in advance, we should be at 4 percent. I think 4 percent is the right number,” Trump said, noting that the U.S. is already spending at least that much.
