Trump Reminds NATO Countries: Many of You are Still Delinquent on Payments

Katie Pavlich | December 04, 2019 11:00 PM

President Trump is on his way back to Washington, D.C., after spending three days at the NATO Summit in London.

During his visit, he met with a number of world leaders, held multiple press conferences and again reminded countries they need to bolster the alliance by shouldering their share of the cost burden.

“Slightly delinquent, I’d say, Canada, but they’ll be okay. I have confidence. They’re slightly delinquent," Trump said when asked about Canada's failure to pay the required two percent. "Some are major delinquent. Some are way below one percent, and that’s unacceptable, and then if something happens, we’re supposed to protect them, and it’s not really fair, and it never has been fair. They’re paying up. We are talking to Germany tomorrow, and they’re starting to come along. They have to. They have to. Otherwise, if they don’t want to, I’ll have to do something with respect to trade."

He said the same during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"We don’t want to have people delinquent...I don’t think it’s fair for us to be involved. Including France, by the way, to be involved, and you have countries that aren’t paying their way. They, you know, they’re less than one percent. You have a couple that are less than one percent. Not fair," he said. "NATO is becoming different than it was, much bigger than it was, and much stronger than it was because people are now fulfilling their commitments. There are some countries that aren’t fulfilling their commitment, and those countries are going to be dealt with. Maybe I’ll deal with them from a trade standpoint. Maybe I’ll deal with them in a different way. I’ll work something out where they have to pay."