The White House voiced agreement Tuesday with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel’s remark that her country can no longer depend on others for security, which spurred criticism in the U.S. news media that President Trump had strained relations with European allies.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the comment was exactly the response Mr. Trump wanted when he prodded Ms. Mekel and other European leaders to pay their fair share for NATO defense.
“That’s great. That’s what the president called for. He called for additional burden sharing,” Mr. Spicer said when asked about Ms. Merkel’s comment at the daily White House press briefing.
He was ready for the question and read back the quote from Ms. Merkel:
“The times when we could fully count on others are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days. We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands, of course in friendship with the United States, in friendship with Great Britain, with other neighbors wherever possible, also with Russia.”
Mr. Spicer said it was good for everybody for countries like Germany to meet their NATO obligations.
“That is a good thing for them, that is a good thing for NATO, that is a good thing for America,” he said.
Mr. Trump raised eyebrows last week at a NATO summit in Brussels when he stood before European leaders and told them that their countries had to start paying their agreed share for military security.
Mr. Trump has pushed that issues since the camping and has already seen some NATO members increase their payments, which is supposed to be 2 percent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product. Currently, only five of NATO’s 28 members pay the agreed-upon amount for defense.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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