Trump Gives NATO Backing After Sowing Summit Discord
- U.S. president declares victory after hijacking two-day summit
- Macron, Merkel play down claim of new defense spending targets
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President Donald Trump affirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO, but only after dragging top allies -- Germany in particular -- through a chaotic two days of insults, accusations and demands for more military spending.
The U.S. president, in a news conference hastily arranged on Thursday to address reports he had privately threatened to pull out of the post-World War II alliance if countries don’t rapidly raise their defense spending, said he believes he could leave NATO without Congress’ authorization. But he said doing so would be “unnecessary” because countries had agreed to spend more.