During his trip to Europe, President Trump criticized Germany, Europe’s most populous democracy and pivotal NATO ally as being “totally controlled by Russia.” And, if that wasn’t clear enough, he reiterated this by saying, “Germany, as far I’m concerned, is captive to Russia … So we’re supposed to protect Germany, but they’re getting their energy from Russia.”
For good measure, Trump noted that Germany is not meeting its obligations under the NATO defense alliance to spend 2 percent of GDP on their military — Berlin spends a paltry 1.2 percent of their economy on defense. Other than the U.S., only four of other 28 NATO members meet the threshold.
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