NATO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [5-25-17] chastised NATO leaders for not paying their fair share to protect the alliance, complaining in front of them that the defense burden the United States has shouldered for many years is “not fair” to its taxpayers.
Trump also did not explicitly affirm that an attack on any member of the 28-nation alliance is an attack on all.
Separately, Trump vowed to crack down on leaks that led British police to withhold information from the United States about the investigation into this week’s concert bombing.
Trump issued his sharp rebuke to NATO from Brussels — he once called it a hellhole — where he addressed leaders at both the European Union and NATO, alliances whose necessity he has questioned.
At a ceremony at NATO’s gleaming new headquarters, Trump reissued his longstanding call for members to pay their fair share, lecturing the expressionless leaders about spending more as they stood listening in awkward silence.”
-Jonathan Lemire and Julie Pace, “Trump chastises NATO, vows to crackdown on leaks,” The Associated Press, May 25, 2017 12:38pm