U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a diatribe against Germany on Saturday, saying Berlin owes “vast sums of money” to NATO and must pay Washington more for security.
His latest tweetstorm comes a day after he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington, where the two leaders showed little common ground over a host of thorny issues, including NATO and defense spending.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted: “Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”
He prefaced his statement by lashing out at the news media. “Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS,” he tweeted, “I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.”
During his joint news conference with Merkel on Friday, Trump demanded that America’s allies in the military alliance pay back “vast sums of money from past years.”