United States President Donald Trump has claimed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, became much stronger because of his actions in the past.
Trump said this while recalling how he had strong-armed many NATO nations to boost their defense spending to a minimum of 2% of GDP during his first term as US President
The 78-year-old spoke at the White House on Thursday while hosting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office.
Trump met with Rutte where they discussed issues affecting Europe, including the Russia-Ukraine war and NATO defense budgets.
“When I first went to NATO, I noticed that very few people were paying and if they were, they weren’t paying their fair share,” Trump said.
“I was able to raise hundreds of billions of dollars. I just said, ‘We’re not going to be involved with you if you’re not going to pay.’ And the money started pouring in.
“And NATO became much stronger because of my actions.”
NATO became much stronger because of my actions – Trump
