Here’s a lovely ‘Trump is wild and does wild things’ story for you on your Monday morn: according to government sources, Trump handed German chancellor Angela Merkel a literal printed invoice for £300 billion (AU$490B).
The invoice was part and parcel of something Trump has been hammering on for some time – his claim that other countries in the NATO military alliance aren’t putting in the hard yards on their end of the bargain. NATO countries are supposed to contribute 2% of their GDP to defence. The only countries who actually meet that requirement are the US, Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland.
The Sunday Times reports that Trump got his team to calculate the shortfall in German defence investment since 2002, then chuck interest on top. Because he’s a dealmaker, and he makes deals.
A source told the Times that German leadership was unfazed by Trump’s mini stunt. “The president has a very unorthodox view on NATO defence spending,” the source said. “The alliance is not a club with a membership fee. The commitments relate to countries’ investment in their defence budgets.”
An unnamed German minister reportedly agreed. “The concept behind putting out such demands is to intimidate the other side, but the chancellor took it calmly and will not respond to such provocations.”
Merkel herself is said to have ignored Trump’s ‘request’, but has committed to increasing German defence spending gradually.
Everyone is reporting on this seemingly based on the Sunday Times report – which is based on leaks from both US and German sources. Did it happen behind closed doors? I think Mother Jones has the best take on this:
On the one hand, reporting on items like this from the British press is notoriously unreliable. On the other hand, it’s moronic beyond belief, which makes it perfectly plausible that Trump might have done this. Hmmm.
Source: The Sunday Times.
Photo: Getty Images.
