Trump and Stoltenberg get into tense exchange at NATO summit

First of all, it's a pleasure to see you again, Mr. The president and I are a pleasure to have you here for the

summit

and we are going to discuss many important issues at the

summit

, including defense spending and we all agree that we have to do more. I agree with you that we need to make sure ours. are investing more, the good news is that allies have started investing more in defense, after years of defense cuts they have started adding billions to defense budgets and last year saw the largest increase in defense spending across Europe in Tonga in a generation, why was that last year?

It's also because your leadership will be closer to carrying the message and they won't write that you know I'm seventy four hundred, but the thing is you really have, your message is having an impact and we're going to take advantage of that to make sure that we have more increases. that you initiated austere that at all hours we are going to develop national plans on how to spend more on defense and based on these massive national dances, you know, you estimate that the Europeans Alice and Canada We will add two hundred and sixty-six additional US dollars for defense from now on up to US$1 billion through 2024, so this is really getting an extra boost that helps.

I'm moving in that direction that we still have to, but we still have to do it. two more and that's what we'll learn to deal with the stomach later today. Let those not be so strong. NATO is good for Europe, it is also good for the United States. The United States military presence in Europe helps protect Europe. He also helps the Knight Estate. project power in the Middle East and Africa and I also think that now the military class of Europe, come on Macleod, political power is also useful in dealing with Russia and we look forward to the meeting that they are going to have with President Putin and I think that the leaders They also look forward to your views on the meeting with the 15th person at NATO.

Well, I have to say that I think it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia. Yes, you are supposed to protect yourself from Russia. and Germany goes out and pays billions of dollars a year to Russia, so we're protecting Germany, we're protecting our friends, we're protecting all these countries and many of the countries go out and make a deal on a pipeline with Russia where They are paying billions of dollars to Russia's coffers, so we are supposed to protect them against Russia, but they are paying billions of dollars to Russia and I think that is very inappropriate and the former Chancellor of Germany is the boss of the pipeline.

The company that supplies the gas, ultimately Germany will have almost 70 percent of its country controlled by Russia with natural gas, so you tell me it's appropriate. I mean, I would have liked to complain about this from the moment I received it. He should never have been allowed to have it. It happened, but Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they were getting sixty to seventy percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline and you tell me if that's appropriate because I think it's not. I think it's a very bad thing for NATO and I don't think it should have happened and I think we have to talk to Germany about it, plus Germany is paying a little more than 1%, while the United States, in real numbers, you're paying 4.2 percent of a much larger GDP, so I think that's inappropriate.

You also know that we are protecting Germany, we are protecting France, we are protecting everyone and yet we are paying a lot of money to protect. This has been going on for decades. This has been mentioned by other presidents, but other presidents. I never did anything about it because I don't think they understood it or they just didn't want to get involved, but I have to bring it up because I think it's very unfair to our country, it's very unfair to our taxpayer and I think these countries have to increase it, not in a period of 10 years, it must be increased immediately.

Germany is a rich country they talk about, they can increase it a little bit by 2030, well, they could increase it immediately tomorrow and they have no problem. I don't think it's fair to the United States, so we're going to have to do something because we're not going to tolerate it, we can't tolerate it and it's inappropriate, so we have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that are being paid to the United States. country that we're supposed to protect you against, you know, everyone talks about it all over the world, they'll say, well, wait a minute, we're supposed to protect you from Russia, but why?

Are you paying billions of dollars to Russia for energy? Why do NATO countries, that is, Germany, have a large percentage of it and you know that Russia and Russia deal with it now? If you look at it, Germany is captive to Russia because they supply it. They got rid of the colds to get rid of their nuclear weapons are getting much of Russia's oil and gas. I think it's something that NATO needs to look at. I think it's very inappropriate and I agree that it's inappropriate. I don't know what can be done about it now, but it certainly doesn't seem to make sense that they paid billions of dollars to Russia and now we have to defend them against Russia.

You know, it can betray the alliance of 29 nations and sometimes there are differences. and the different points of view and also some disagreements and then the gas from Russia to Germany is an issue on which the allies do not agree, but the strength of NATO is that despite these differences we have always been able to unite around at our cost to protect and defend each other to understand each other. that we are stronger together than apart I think two world wars and the Cold War are core things that we are stronger together than apart, but how can they be together?

Which country gets its energy from the person you want protection from or if you want it? You understand that when we are together also in dealing with Russia we are stronger. I think what we've seen is that you're making Russia richer and the element that you're doing is right, Richard. I think even during the Cold War there was a lot of drama

exchange

d. With Russia there have been disagreements about what kind of justice we should apply. I think commerce is wonderful. I think energy is a completely different story and energy is a very different story than normal trade and we have a country like Poland that won't do it. accept the S, take a look at some of the countries that won't accept it because they don't want to be captives of Russia, but Germany, as far as I'm concerned, is captives of Russia because a lot of its energy comes from Russia, so We're supposed to protect Germany, but getting their energy from Russia explains that and can be explained, you know, okay, thanks, press, thanks.