Terrorism on the agenda in Trump’s G7 visit

Published May 26, 2017 11:00am ET



TRUMP IN SICILY: President Trump wraps ups his nine-day, five-nation overseas trip today, attending a summit of the G7, the Group of Seven wealthy democracies meeting in the resort city of Taormina, Sicily. Trump faces pressure on climate change, topic A at the summit meeting, which will also have a heavy focus on terrorism and migration issues, writes Alex Pappas. The other G7 countries all support the Paris Climate Accord, which Trump campaigned against, but now says he’s reconsidering. Trump met in Brussels yesterday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who aides said is pushing for Trump not to withdraw from the pact, but he’s also facing pressure back home. More than 20 Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, sent a letter Trump asking Trump to leave the agreement, arguing it will subject the U.S. to a “significant litigation risk” and make it more difficult to rescind the Clean Power Plan.

TRUMP’S NATO RANT: At NATO yesterday, Trump returned to his favorite talking point, excoriating the allies for failure to meet the 2 percent spending goal they all committed to in 2014. The president isn’t happy with the 10-year timeframe allotted for member nations to increase spending on their own defense. “Two percent is the bare minimum for confronting today’s very real and very vicious threats,” Trump lectured the allies at a ceremony dedicating a memorial to the September 11 attacks. “Over the last eight years, the United States spent more on defense than all other NATO countries combined,” Trump said. “If all NATO members had spent just 2 percent of their GDP on defense last year, we would have had another $119 billion for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves.”

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