, Columnist
Trump Can't Win by Punishing Germany on Defense
German security interests are more complex than its theoretical NATO commitments.
Not 2 percent? Not a problem.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
After meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Donald Trump has again usurped the agenda with a couple of outrageously ignorant tweets, saying that Germany "owes vast sums of money to NATO" and that the U.S. "must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany."
A straight answer to these claims -- that Germany owes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nothing and that NATO members aren't, and won't be, paying the U.S. anything for their defense -- is as beside the point as Trump's comments: It doesn't address Germany's real national security agenda and what the country is doing to implement it.