#DonYouIgnorantRump – Paying for NATO

“Many countries (in NATO) owe us a tremendous amount of money for many years back, where they’re delinquent, as far as I’m concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them.”
— Donald Trump at a bilateral breakfast with NATO Secretary General Gens Stoltenberg

Don, you ignorant rump!

There is no “NATO kitty” that countries pay into except for a small ($5B) budget that handles some military and civilian expenses.

NATO is covered by the defense budget of each country.  Their forces are assigned to NATO positions.  I know this from working in the U.S. Air Force and seeing NATO postings available.

While it is true that only 5 countries are meeting the agreement to spend 2% of GDP or more on defense (note on DEFENSE, not “on NATO”), those being the United States, Greece, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Latvia, the rest of the countries have UNTIL 2024 to meet that goal!

That’s quite the scale of public ignorance from the Commander in Chief.

Note that he took credit for increased NATO spending – except that the agreement was from 2014 and, as stated before, allows countries to 2024.