ECONOMY/EU/FOREIGN POLICY/NATO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “After taking criticism in Europe for his ‘America First’ foreign policy, President Donald Trump resumed his complaints about NATO and the costs of the military partnership with Europe on Monday [11-12-18]…Trump’s tweets reiterated his complaints about the high cost of providing military protection for countries that sell the USA more goods and services than they buy…The United States spends the highest share of its economy on defense, at 3.5 percent, and Luxembourg spends the lowest, at a little more than half of 1 percent. The 29 members of NATO pledged to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Only five countries meet that goal – the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Latvia. Trump criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for calling for a continental military group independent of the United States. Last week, Macron suggested a strictly European defense pact after Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.”
–Bart Jansen and David Jackson, “Post-Paris, President Trump again complains about NATO,” USA Today, November 14, 2018 8:04 pm