House Chairman Calls Trump’s ‘Cost Plus 50’ Idea for Troops ‘Monumentally Stupid’
- House Democrat Smith comments on premium plan during Hearing
- Pushing U.S. allies away is ‘a huge mistake,’ Smith says
Soldiers with the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division run during an air assault training course at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, South Korea in 2013.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
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President Donald Trump’s interest in forcing allies to pay the full cost of hosting American troops -- plus a 50 percent bonus -- is a “monumentally stupid approach,” the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said.
“Are we truly saying to our allies that we want you now to pay the cost plus 50 percent of our presence?” Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, said at a committee hearing on Wednesday. “Just for the record, I think that would be a monumentally stupid approach.”