AP FACT CHECK: Trump falsely claims credit on NATO spending

“I can tell you now that NATO now is really a fine-tuned machine. People are paying money that they’ve never paid before. They’re happy to do it. And the United States is being treated much more fairly.”

THE FACTS: There’s no outward sign that Trump’s aggressive posturing in recent days has changed much for the alliance other than bruise its veneer of unity.

NATO members had already agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military budgets and set a goal of moving “toward” spending 2 per cent of their gross domestic product on their own defence by 2024.

On Wednesday, Trump roiled the summit by calling on NATO members to more than double their spending goal, suggesting a new benchmark that would have them devote 4 per cent of their economy to defence. (NATO lists the U.S. as spending an estimated 3.5 per cent of its GDP on its military budget this year.)

But by Thursday, leaders from France, Germany and Italy offered no support for Trump’s claim that he had wrung new concessions out of the alliance on their military spending. “I made clear that we know that we have to do more and that we have been doing so for quite a while,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “That turning point has long been initiated.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said allies had reaffirmed in their communique their intention to meet the goal of 2 per cent by 2024 and no more.

In his press conference, Trump even seemed to acknowledge that there was no new commitment, though he said NATO members might spend “at a much faster clip” than before: “We will go to much higher than 2 per cent into the future, but right now we’re getting people up to 2 per cent.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did allow that the allies felt a “new sense of urgency, and all allies agreed to redouble their efforts.”

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TRUMP: “I told people that I’d be very unhappy if they didn’t up their commitments very substantially because the United States has been paying a tremendous amount, probably 90 per cent of the costs of NATO.”

THE FACTS: Not true. The U.S. military budget comprises about 70 per cent of the military spending of all NATO countries together, not 90 per cent — and that’s for worldwide military commitments, not just Europe.

NATO has a largely administrative budget of about $3 billion for its headquarters and certain civilian and military costs. The U.S. share of that is capped at 22 per cent. The United States may bear higher costs of certain military missions under the NATO banner.

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TRUMP: “One of the states we won, Wisconsin __ I didn’t even realize this until fairly recently — that was the one state that Ronald Reagan didn’t win when he ran the board his second time. He didn’t win Wisconsin, and we won Wisconsin.”

THE FACTS: Trump has said this before; it’s not true. Reagan won Wisconsin in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.

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Associated Press writer Lorne Cook contributed to the report from Brussels.

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EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures

Anne Flaherty, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

AP FACT CHECK: Trump falsely claims credit on NATO spending

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